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YOUNG  FOLKS’  HISTORY 


OF 


ENGLAND 


BY 

CHARLOTTE  M.  YONGE. 


Author  of  “The  Heir  of  Redclyffe,”  “Little  Lucy's 
Wonderful  Globe,”  “Book  of  Golden  Deeds,” 
“Young  Folks’  History  of  Germany,” 
“Greece,”  “France,”  “Rome,” 

&c. 


V 


2.L31  0 


BOSTON: 

D.  LOTHROP  AND  COMPANY, 


FRANKLIN  ST.,  CORNER  OF  HAWLEY. 


Copyright  by 

Lothrop  &  Co.,  and  Estes  &  Eaiirtat. 
1879 


Printed  by  Rockwell  <&  Churchill ■ 


f  H  ^ 
Y5V 


P 


-  / 

CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE. 

1.  — Julius  Cassar.  b.c.  55  .  .  .  .13 

* 

2.  — The  Romans  in  Britain,  a.d.  41 — 418  .  .  18 

3.  — The  Angle  Children,  a.d.  597  .  .  .25 

4.  — The  Northmen,  a.d.  858 — 95S  ...  32 

5.  — The  Danish  Conquest,  a.d.  958  1035  .  .  40 

6.  — The  Norman  Conquest,  a.d.  1035 — 1066  .  47 

7.  — William  the  Conqueror,  a.d.  1066 — 1087  .  .  53 

8.  — William  II.,  Rufus,  a.d.  1087 — 1100  .  .  61 

9.  — Henry  I.,  Beau-Clerc.  A.d.  1100 — 1135  .  .  68 

10.  — Stephen,  a.d.  1135 — 1154  ...  72 

11.  — Henry  II.,  Fitz-Empress.  a.d.  1154 — 1189  .  .  78 

12.  — Richard  I.,  Lion-Heart,  a.d.  1189—1199  .  87 

13.  — John,  Lackland,  a.d.  1199 — 1216  .  .  .95 

14.  — Henry  III.,  of  Winchester,  a.d.  1216 — 1272  .  104 

15.  — Edward  1.,  Longshanks,  a.d.  1272 — 1307  .  .  113 

16.  — Edward  IL,  of  Caernarvon,  a.d.  1307 — 1327  .  122 

5 

2.  (s  3  9  0 


VI. 


Contents, 


CHAP.  PAGE. 

17. — Edward  III.  a.d.  1327—1377  .  .  .  .130 

18. — Richard  II.  a.d.  1377—1399  ...  139 

19. — Henry  IY.  a.d.  1399—1413  .  .  .  .148 

20.  — Henry  V.,  of  Monmouth,  a.d.  1413 — 1423  .  157 

21.  — Henry  VI.,  of  Windsor.  A.d.  1423 — 14G1  .  .  164 

22. — Edward  IY.  a.d.  1461—1483  ...  174 

23. — Edward  Y.  A.d.  1483  .  183 

24. — Richard  III.  a.d.  1483— 14S5  .  190 

25. — Henry  YH.  a.d.  1485—1509  .  .  .  .196 

26.  — Henry  VIH.  and  Cardinal  Wolsey.  a.d.  1509 — 1529  205 

27. — Henry  YIH.  and  his  Wives,  a.d.  152S— 1547  .  213 

28. — Edward  YI.  A.d.  1547—1553  ...  222 

29. — Mary  I.  A.d.  1553—1558  .  .  .  .229 

30. — Elizabeth,  a.d.  155S— 15S7  ...  237 

31.  — Elizabeth  (continued),  a.d.  1587 — 1602  .  246 

32.  — James  1.,  a.d.  1602 — 1625  .  .  .  253 

33. — Charles  I.,  a.d.  1625—1649  .  .  .  .262 

34.  — The  Long  Parliament,  a.d.  1649  .  .  269 

35.  — Death  of  Charles  I.  a.d.  1649 — 1651  .  .  277 

36.  — Oliver  Cromwell,  a.d.  1649 — 1660  .  .  288 

37. — Charles  II.  a.d.  1660—1685  .  .  .  .297 

38. — James  II.  a.d.  1685—1688  ...  305 

39. — William  III.  and  Mary  II.  a.d.  1689—1702  .  .  314 

40. — Anne.  A.D.  1702—1714  ....  322 

41.  — George  I.  a.d.  1714 — 1725  ....  332 

42.  — George  II.  a.d.  1725 — 1760  .  .  .  337 

43. — George  III.  a.d.  1760— 17S5  .  .  .  .346 


Contents.  vii. 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

44.  — George  III.  (continued. )  a.d.  1785 — 1810  .  354 

45.  — George  III. — The  Regency,  a.d.  1810 — 1820  .  362 

46—  George  IV.  a.d.  1820—1839  .  369 

47. — William  IV.  a.d.  1S30— 1837  .  .  .  375 

48.  — Victoria,  a.d.  1837 — 1855  .  .  .  380 

49.  — Victoria  (continued).  1S55 — 1860  .  .  .  386 

50.  — Victoria  (continued),  a.d.  1860 — 1872  .  .  393 

Questions  for  Examination  ....  398 


JV  ; 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Frontispiece.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 

PAGE. 

Caesar  landing  in  Britain  .... 

13 

Caractacus  and  his  Wife  before  Claudius 

.  19 

Augustine  preaching  to  Ethelbert 

27 

Alfred  and  his  Mother  .... 

Alfred  in  the  Herdsman’s  Hut  . 

35 

Canute  by  the  Sea-shore  .... 

.  45 

William  the  Conqueror  reviewing  his  Troops 

49 

Robert’s  Encounter  with  his  Father 

.  57 

The  Crusaders’  March . 

.  .  61 

Death  of  W m.  Rufus . 

Escape  of  the  Empress  Maude 

72 

Murder  of  Thomas  a  Becket 

.  79 

Henry  II. ’s  Tomb  at  Fontevraud 

86 

Richard  removing  the  Archduke’s  Banner 

.  89 

Murder  of  Prince  Arthur . 

97 

John’s  Anger  after  signing  Magna  Charta 

.  101 

Hubert  de  Burgh  taking  Refuge  in  a  Church  . 

.  104 

IX. 


X. 


List  of  Illustrations. 


FAGE. 

King  Henry  and  his  Barons . 107 

Caernarvon  Castle  . . 115 

Edward  II.  and  his  Jailers . .  .  127 

Death  of  Edward  III. . 130 

Queen  Philippa  on  her  Knees  before  the  King  .  .  .  133 

The  Black  Prince  serving  the  French  King  .  .  .  135 

Death  of  Wat  Tyler . 141 

Prince  Henry  offers  his  Life  to  his  Father  ....  153 
Henry  Y.’s  He  view  before  Agincourt  ....  159 

Joan  of  Arc  recognizes  the  French  King  ....  165 
Interview  between  Edward  IY.  and  Louis  XI.  .  .  177 

Tower  of  London . 185 

Henry  Tudor  crowned  on  the  Battle-field  of  Bosworth  .  193 

Henry  YII.  laying  the  Banners  on  the  Altar  .  .  .  196 

Chapel  and  Tomb  of  Henry  VII . 199 

Henry  VIII.  starting  for  the  Hunt . 205 

Cardinal  Wolsey  served  by  Noblemen  ....  209 

Marriage  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Anne  Boleyn  .  .  .  213 

Parting  of  Sir  Thomas  More  and  his  Daughter  .  .  215 

Edward  VI.  writing  his  Journal . 225 

The  New  Service . 229 

Mary  vows  to  marry  Philip  II . 231 

Queen  Elizabeth’s  Progress . 237 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots . 241 

Naval  Engagement . 246 

The  Gunpowder  Plot  discovered . 257 

Assassination  of  Buckingham . 267 


List  of  Illustrations.  xi. 

PAGE. 

Queen  Henrietta  Maria . 271 

Burial  of  King  Charles . 277 

King  Charles’  Children . 279 

Execution  of  King  Charles . 283 

Cromwell  dismissing  the  Long  Parliament  .  .  .  289 

Portrait  of  Monk . 293 

The  Great  Fire . 297 

Lord  Russell’s  Trial . 301 

King  James’  Escape  . 305 

Portrait  of  Monmouth  . 307 

King  James  at  the  Battle  of  Boyne  ....  317 

Queen  Anne . 323 

Duke  and  Duchess  of  Marlborough . 327 

Charles  Edward  welcomed  by  the  Highlanders  .  .  .  337 

Death  of  Wolfe . 341 

Destruction  of  Tea . 346 

Franklin . 349 

Portrait  of  Pitt . 355 

Plymouth  Harbor . 365 

Victoria . 380 

Windsor  Castle  . . 389 

English  Manor  House  . 393 


YOUNG  FOLKS’  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER  I . 


JULIUS  CJESAR. 


B.C.  55. 


TVTEARLY  two  thousand  years  ago  there  was 
^  a  brave  captain  whose  name  was  Julius 
Caesar.  The  soldiers  he  led  to  battle  were  very 

strong,  and  conquered  the  people  wherever  they 
13 


14  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

went.  They  had  no  guns  or  gunpowder  then ; 
but  they  had  swords  and  spears,  and,  to  prevent 
themselves  from  being  hurt,  they  had  helmets  or 
brazen  caps  on  their  heads,  with  long  tufts  of 
horse-hair  upon  them,  by  way  of  ornament,  and 
breast-plates  of  brass  on  their  breasts,  and  on  their 
arms  they  carried  a  sort  of  screen,  made  of  strong 
leather.  One  of  them  carried  a  little  brass  figure 
of  an  eagle  on  a  long  pole,  with  4  scarlet  flag  fly¬ 
ing  below,  and  wherever  the  eagle  was  seen,  they 
all  followed,  and  fought  so  bravely  that  nothing 
could  long  stand  against  them. 

When  Julius  Caesar  rode  at  their  head,  with  his 
keen,  pale  ] look-nosed  face,  and  the  scarlet  cloak 
that  the  general  always  wore,  they  were  so  proud 
of  him,  and  so  fond  of  him,  that  there  was  nothing 
they  would  not  do  for  him. 

Julius  Caesar  heard  that  a  little  way  off  there 
was  a  country  nobody  knew  anything  about,  ex¬ 
cept  that  the  people  were  very  fierce  and  savage, 
and  that  a  sort  of  pearl  was  found  in  the  shells  of 
mussels  which  lived  in  the  rivers.  He  could  not 
bear  that  there  should  be  any  place  that  his  own 
people,  the  Romans,  did  not  know  and  subdue. 
So  he  commanded  the  ships  to  be  prepared,  and  he 
and  his  soldiers  embarked,  watching  the  white 


Julius  Coesar. 


15 


cliffs  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea  grow  higher  and 
higher  as  he  came  nearer  and  nearer. 

When  he  came  quite  up  to  them,  he  found  the 
savages  were  there  in  earnest.  They  were  tall 
men,  with  long  red  streaming  hair,  and  such 
clothes  as  they  had  were  woollen,  checked  like 
plaid ;  but  many  had  their  arms  and  breasts  naked, 
and  painted  all  over  in  blue  patterns.  They  had 
spears  and  darts,  and  the  chief  men  among  them 
were  in  basket-work  chariots,  with  a  scythe  in  the 
middle  of  each  wheel  to  cut  down  their  enemies. 
They  yelled  and  brandished  their  darts,  to  make 
Julius  Caesar  and  his  Roman  soldiers  keep  away  ; 
but  he  only  went  on  to  a  place  where  the  shore 
was  not  quite  so  steep,  and  there  commanded  his 
soldiers  to  land.  The  savages  had  run  along  the 
shore  too,  and  there  was  a  terrible  fight ;  but  at 
last  the  man  who  carried  the  eagle  jumped  down 
into  the  middle  of  the  natives,  calling  out  to  his 
fellows  that  they  must  come  after  him,  or  they 
would  lose  their  eagle.  They  all  came  rushing  and 
leaping  down,  and  thus  they  managed  to  force 
back  the  savages,  and  make  their  way  to  the 
shore. 

There  was  not  much  worth  having  when  they 
had  made  their  way  there.  Though  they  came  again 


16  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

the  next  year,  and  forced  their  way  a  good  deal 
farther  into  the  county,  they  saw  chiefly  hare 
downs,  or  heaths,  or  thick  woods.  The  few  houses 
were  little  more  than  piles  of  stones,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  were  rough  and  wild,  and  could  do  veiy  little. 
The  men  hunted  wild  hoars,  and  wolves  and  stags, 
and  the  women  dug  the  ground,  and  raised  a  little 
corn,  which  they  ground  to  flour  between  two 
stones  to  make  bread  ;  and  they  spun  the  wool  of 
their  sheep,  dyed  it  with  bright  colors,  and  wove  it 
into  dresses.  They  had  some  strong  places  in  the 
woods,  with  trunks  of  trees,  cut  down  to  shut 
them  in  from  the  enemjr,  with  all  their  flocks  and 
cattle ;  hut  Caesar  did  not  get  into  any  of  these. 
He  only  made  the  natives  give  him  some  of  their 
pearls,  and  call  the  Romans  their  masters,  and  then 
he  went  back  to  his  ships,  and  none  of  the  set  of 
savages  who  were  alive  when  he  came  saw  him  or 
his  Romans  any  more. 

Do  you  know  who  these  savages  were  who 
fought  with  Julius  Caesar?  They  were  called 
Britons.  And  the  country  he  came  to  see  ?  That 
was  our  very  own  island,  England,  only  it  was  not 
called  so  then.  And  the  place  where  Julius  Caesar 
landed  is  called  Deal,  and,  if  you  look  at  the  map, 
where  England  and  France  most  nearly  touch  one 


Julius  Ccesar. 


17 


another,  I  think  you  will  see  the  name  Deal,  and 
remember  it  was  there  Julius  Caesar  landed,  and 
fought  with  the  Britons. 

It  was  fifty-five  years  before  our  blessed  Saviour 
was  born  that  the  Romans  came.  So  at  the  top  of 
this  chapter  stands  B.  c.  (Before  Christ)  55. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN. 

A.D.  41—418. 

IT  was  nearly  a  hundred  years  before  any  more  of 
the  Romans  came  to  Britain ;  but  they  were 
people  who  could  not  hear  of  a  place  without  want¬ 
ing  to  conquer  it,  and  they  never  left  off  trying 
till  they  had  done  what  they  undertook. 

One  of  their  emperors,  named  Claudius,  sent  his 
soldiers  to  conquer  the  island,  and  then  came  to 
see  it  himself,  and  called  himself  Britannicus  in 
honor  of  the  victory,  just  as  if  he  had  done  it  him¬ 
self,  instead  of  his  generals.  One  British  chief, 
whose  name  was  Caractacus,  who  had  fought  very 
bravely  against  the  Romans,  was  brought  to  Rome, 
with  chains  on  his  hands  and  feet,  and  set  before 
the  emperor.  As  he  stood  there,  he  said  that, 
when  he  looked  at  all  the  grand  buildings  of  stone 

18 


The  Romans  in  Britain. 


21 


and  marble  in  the  streets,  he  could  not  think  why 
the  Romans  should  want  to  take  away  the  poor 
rough-stone  huts  of  the  Britons.  The  wife  of  Carac- 
tacus,  who  had  also  been  brought  a  prisoner  to 
Rome,  fell  upon  her  knees  imploring  pity,  but  the 
conquered  chief  asked  for  nothing  and  exhibited 
no  signs  of  fear.  Claudius  was  kind  to  Carac- 
tacus ;  but  the  Romans  went  on  conquering  Britain 
till  they  had  won  all  the  part  of  it  that  lies  south  of 
the  river  Tweed;  and,  as  the  people  beyond  that 
point  were  more  fierce  and  savage  still,  a  very 
strong  wall,  with  a  bank  of  earth  and  deep  ditch 
was  made  to  keep  them  out,  and  always  watched  by 
Roman  soldiers. 

The  Romans  made  beautiful  straight  roads  all 
over  the  country,  and  they  built  towns.  Almost 
all  the  towns  whose  names  end  in  Chester  Avere 
begun  by  the  Romans,  and  bits  of  their  Avails  are 
to  be  seen  still,  built  of  very  small  bricks.  Some¬ 
times  people  dig  up  a  bit  of  the  beautiful  pavement 
of  colored  tiles,  in  patterns,  which  used  to  be  the 
floors  of  their  houses,  or  a  piece  of  their  money,  or 
one  of  their  ornaments. 

For  the  Romans  held  Britain  for  four  hundred 
years;)  and  tamed  the  Avild  people  in  the  South,  and 
taught  them  to  speak  and  dress,  and  read  and 


22 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


write  like  themselves,  so  that  they  could  hardly  be 
known  from  Romans.  Only  the  wild  ones  beyond 
the  wall,  and  in  the  mountains,  were  as  savage  as 
ever,  and,  now  and  then,  used  to  come  and  steal 
the  cattle,  and  burn  the  houses  of  their  neigh¬ 
bors  who  had  learnt  better. 

Another  set  of  wild  people  used  to  come  over  in 
boats  across  the  North  Sea  and  German  Ocean. 
These  people  had  their  home  in  the  country  that  is 
called  Holstein  and  Jutland.  They  were  tall  men, 
and  had  blue  eyes  and  fail-  hair,  and  they  were  very 
strong,  and  good-natured  in  a  rough  sort  of  way, 
though  they  were  fierce  to  their  enemies.  There 
was  a  great  deal  more  fighting  than  any  one  has 
told  us  about ;  but  the  end  of  it  all  was  that  the 
Roman  soldiers  were  wanted  at  home,  and  though 
the  great  British  chief  we  call  King  Arthur  fought 
very  bravely,  he  could  not  drive  back  the  blue¬ 
eyed  men  in  the  ships ;  but  more  and  more  came, 
till,  at  last,  they  got  all  the  country,  and  drove  the 
Britons,  some  up  into  the  North,  some  into  the 
mountains  that  rise  along  the  West  of  the  island, 
and  some  out  into  its  west  point. 

The  Britons  used  to  call  the  blue-eyed  men 
Saxons ;  but  they  called  themselves  Angles,  and 
the  country  was  called  after  them  Angle-land. 


The  Homans  in  Britain. 


23 


Don’t  you  know  what  it  is  called  now  ?  England 
itself,  and  the  people  English.  They  spoke  much 
the  same  language  as  we  do,  only  more  as  untaught 
country  people,  and  they  had  not  so  many  words, 
because  they  had  not  so  many  things  to  see  and 
talk  about. 

As  to  the  Britons,  the  English  went  on  driving 
them  back  till  they  only  kept  their  mountains. 
There  they  have  gone  on  living  ever  since,  and 
talking  their  own  old  language.  The  English 
called  them  Welsh,  a  name  that  meant  strangers, 
and  we  call  them  Welsh  still,  and  their  country 
Wales.  They  made  a  great  many  grand  stories 
about  their  last  brave  chief,  Arthur,  till,  at  last, 
they  turned  into  a  sort  of  fairy  tale.  It  was  said 
that,  when  King  Arthur  lay  badly  wounded  after 
his  last  battle,  he  bade  his  friend  fling  his  sword 
into  the  river,  and  that  then  three  lovely  ladies 
came  in  a  boat,  and  carried  him  away  to  a  secret 
island.  The  Welsh  kept  on  saying,  for  years 
and  years,  that  one  day  King  Arthur  would 
wake  up  again,  and  give  them  back  all  Britain, 
which  used  to  be  their  own  before  the  English 

O 

got  it  for  themselves ;  but  the  English  have  had 
England  now  for  thirteen  hundred  years,  and  we 


24 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


cannot  doubt  they  will  keep  it  as  long  as  the 
world  lasts. 

It  was  about  400  years  after  our  Lord  was  born 
that  the  Romans  were  going  and  the  English 
coming. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  ANGLE  CHILDREN. 


a.d.  597. 


THE  old  English  who  had  come  to  Britain 
were  heathen,  and  believed  in  many  false 
gods :  the  Sun,  to  whom  they  made  Sunday  sacred, 
as  Monday  was  to  the  Moon,  Wednesday  to  a  great, 
terrible  god,  named  Woden,  and  Thursday  to  a 
god  named  Thor,  or  Thunder.  They  thought  a 
clap  of  thunder  was  the  sound  of  the  great  ham¬ 
mer  he  carried  in  his  hand.  They  thought  their 
gods  cared  for  people  being  brave,  and  that  the 
i  souls  of  those  who  died  fighting  gallantly  in  battle 
i  were  the  happiest  of  all ;  but  they  did  not  care 
for  kindness  or  gentleness. 

Thus  they  often  did  very  cruel  things,  and  one 
of  the  worst  that  they  did  was  the  stealing  of  men, 
women,  and  children  from  their  homes,  and  selling 


26  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

them  to  strangers,  who  made  slaves  of  them.  All 
England  had  not  one  king.  There  were  generally 
about  seven  kings,  each  with  a  different  part  of  the 
island ;  and  as  they  were  often  at  war  with  one  an¬ 
other,  they  used  to  steal  one  another’s  subjects, 
and  sell  them  to  merchants  who  came  from  Italy 
and  Greece  for  them. 

Some  English  children  were  made  slaves,  and 
carried  to  Rome,  where  they  were  set  in  the  market¬ 
place  to  be  sold.  A  good  priest,  named  Gregory, 
was  walking  by.  He  saw  their  fair  faces,  blue 
eyes,  and  long  light  hair,  and,  stopping,  he  asked 
who  they  were.  “  Angles,”  he  was  told,  “  from 
the  isle  of  Britain.”  “Angles  ?  ”  he  said,  “  they 
have  angel  faces,  and  they  ought  to  be  heirs  with 
the  angels  jn  heaven.”  From  that  time  this  good 
man  tried  to  find  means  to  send  teachers  to  teach 
the  English  the  Christian  faith.  He  had  to  wait 
for  many  years,  and,  in  that  time,  he  was  made 
Pope,  namely,  Father-Bishop  of  Rome.  At  last  he 
heard  that  one  of  the  chief  English  kings,  Ethelbert 
of  Kent,  had  married  Bertha,  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  Paris,  who  was  a  Christian,  and  that  she 
was  to  be  allowed  to  bring  a  priest  with  her,  and 
have  a  church  to  worship  in. 

Gregory  thought  this  would  make  a  beginning  : 


The  Angle  Children. 


29 


so  he  sent  a  priest,  whose  name  was  Augustine, 
with  a  letter  to  King  Ethelbert  and  Queen  Bertha, 
and  asked  the  King  to  listen  to  him.  Ethelbert 
met  Augustine  in  the  open  air,  under  a  tree  at  Can¬ 
terbury,  and  heard  him  tell  about  the  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  lie  has  sent ;  and,  after 
some  time,  and  a  great  deal  of  teaching,  Ethelbert 
gave  up  worshiping  Woden  and  Thor,  and  be¬ 
lieved  in  the  true  God,  and  was  baptized,  and 
many  of  his  people  with  him.  Then  Augustine 
was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ;  and,  one 
after  another,  in  the  course  of  the  next  hundred 
years,  all  the  English  kingdoms  learnt  to  know 
God,  and  broke  down  their  idols,  and  became 
Christian. 

Bishops  were  appointed,  and  churches  were  built, 
and  parishes  were  marked  off — a  great  many  of  them 
the  very  same  that  we  have  now.  Here  and  there, 
when  men  and  women  wanted  to  be  very  good  in¬ 
deed,  and  to  give  their  whole  lives  to  doing  nothing 
but  serving  God,  without  any  of  the  fighting  and 
feasting,  the  buying  and  selling  of  the  outer  world, 
they  built  houses,  where  they  might  live  apart, 
and  churches,  where  there  might  be  services  seven 
times  a  day.  These  houses  were  named  abbeys. 
Those  for  men  were,  sometimes,  also  called  rnonas- 


30  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


teries,  and  the  men  in  them  were  termed  monks, 
wliile  the  women  were  called  nuns,  and  their 
homes  convents  or  nunneries.  They  had  plain 
dark  dresses,  and  hoods,  and  the  women  always 
had  veils.  The  monks  used  to  promise  that  they 
would  work  as  well  as  pray,  so  they  used  to  build 
their  abbeys  by  some  forest  or  marsh,  and  bring  it 
all  into  order,  turning  the  wild  place  into  fields, 
full  of  wheat.  Others  used  to  copy  out  the  Holy 
Scriptures  and  other  good  books  upon  parchment 
—  because  there  was  no  paper  in  those  days,  nor 
any  printing  —  drawing  beautiful  painted  pictures 
at  the  beginning  of  the  chapters,  which  were  called 
illuminations.  The  nuns  did  needlework  and  em¬ 
broidery,  as  hangings  for  the  altar,  and  garments 
for  the  priests,  all  bright  Avith  beautiful  colors,  and 
stiff  Avith  gold.  The  English  nuns’  work  Avas  the 

O  O 

most  beautiful  to  be  seen  anyAvhere 

There  Avere  schools  in  the  abbeys,  where  boys 
Avere  taught  reading,  Avriting,  singing,  and  Latin, 
to  prepare  them  for  being  clergymen ;  but  not 
many  others  thought  it  needful  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  books.  Even  the  great  men  thought 
they  could  farm  and  feast,  advise  the  king,  and 
consent  to  the  laws,  hunt  or  fight,  quite  as  well 
Avithout  reading,  and  they  did  not  care  for  much 


The  Angle  Children. 


31 


besides ;  for,  though  they  were  Christians,  they 
were  still  rude,  rough,  ignorant  men,  who  liked 
nothing  so  well  as  a  hunt  or  a  feast,  and  slept 
away  all  the  evening,  especially  when  they  could 
get  a  harper  to  sing  to  them. 

The  English  men  used  to  wear  a  long  dress  like 
a  carter’s  frock,  and  their  legs  were  wound  round 
with  strips  of  cloth  by  way  of  stockings.  Their 
houses  were  only  one  story,  and  had  no  chim¬ 
neys  —  only  a  hole  at  the  top  for  the  smoke  to  go 
out  at ;  and  no  glass  in  the  windows.  The  only 
glass  there  was  at  all  had  been  brought  from  Italy 
to  put  into  York  Cathedral,  and  it  was  thought  a 
great  wonder.  So  the  windows  had  shutters  to 
keep  out  the  rain  and  wind,  and  the  fire  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  room.  At  dinner-time,  about  twelve 
o’clock,  the  lord  and  lady  of  the  house  sat  upon 
cross-legged  stools,  and  their  children  and  ser¬ 
vants  sat  on  benches ;  and  square  bits  of  wood 
called  trenchers,  were  put  before  them  for  plates, 
while  the  servants  carried  round  the  meat  on  spits, 
and  everybody  cut  off  a  piece  with  his  own  knife 
and  ate  it  without  a  fork.  They  drank  out  of 
cows’  horns,  if  they  had  not  silver  cups.  But 
though  they  were  so  rough  they  were  often  good, 
brave  people. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  NORTHMEN. 


a.d.  858—958. 

THERE  were  many  more  of  the  light-haired, 
blue-eyed  people  on  the  further  side  of  the 
North  Sea  who  worshiped  Thor  and  Woden  still, 
and  thought  that  their  kindred  in  England  had 
fallen  from  the  old  ways.  Besides,  they  liked  to 

make  their  fortunes  by  getting  what  they  could 
32 


The  Northmen. 


33 


from  their  neighbors.  Nobody  was  thought  brave 
or  worthy,  in  Norway  or  Denmark,  who  had  not 
made  some  voyages  in  a  “  long  keel,”  as  a  ship 
was  called,  and  fought  bravely,  and  brought  home 
gold  cups  and  chains  or  jewels  to  show  where  he 
had  been.  Their  captains  were  called  Sea  Kings, 
and  some  of  them  went  a  great  way,  even  into  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  robbed  the  beautiful 
shores  of  Italy.  So  dreadful  was  it  to  see  the  fleet 
of  long  ships  coming  up  to  the  shore,  with  a  ser¬ 
pent  for  the  figure-head,  and  a  raven  as  the  flag, 
and  crowds  of  fierce  warriors  with  axes  in  their 
hands  longing  for  prey  and  bloodshed,  that  where 
we  pray  in  church  that  God  would  deliver  us  from 
lightning  and  tempest,  and  battle  and  murder,  our 
forefathers  used  to  add,  “From  the  fury  of  the 
Northmen,  good  Lord  deliver  us.” 

To  England  these  Northmen  came  in  great 
swarms,  and  chiefly  from  Denmark,  so  that 
they  were  generally  called  “  the  Danes.”  They 
burnt  the  houses,  drove  off  the  cows  and  sheep, 
killed  the  men,  and  took  away  the  women  and 
children  to  be  slaves  ;  and  they  were  always  most 
cruel  of  all  where  they  found  an  Abbey  with  any 
monks  or  nuns,  because  they  hated  the  Christian 
faith.  By  this  time  those  seven  English  kingdoms 


34 


Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


I  told  you  of  liad  all  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one 
king.  Egbert,  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  who 
reigned  at  Winchester,  is  counted  as  the  first  king 
of  all  England.  His  four  grandsons  had  dreadful 
battles  with  the  Danes  all  their  lives,  and  the 
three  eldest  all  died  quite  young.  The  youngest 
was  the  greatest  and  best  king  England  ever  had — 
Alfred  the  Truth-teller.  As  a  child  Alfred  had 
excited  the  hopes  and  admiration  of  all  who  saAv 
him,  and  while  his  brothers  were  busy  with  their 
,  sports,  it  was  his  delight  to  kneel  at  his  mother's 
knee,  and  recite  to  her  the  Saxon  ballads  which  his 
tutor  had  read  to  him.  inspiring  him,  at  that  early 
age,  with  the  ardent  patriotism  and  the  passionate 
love  of  literature  which  rendered  his  character 
so  illustrious.  He  was  only  twenty-two  years 
old  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  and  the  king¬ 
dom  was  overrun  everywhere  with  the  Danes. 
In  the  northern  part  some  had  even  settled  down, 
and  made  themselves  at  home,  as  the  English  had 
done  four  hundred  years  before,  and  more  and 
more  kept  coming  in  their  ships :  so  that,  though 
Alfred  beat  them  in  battle  again  and  again,  there  was 
no  such  thing  as  driving  them  away.  At  last  he  had 
so  very  few  faithful  men  left  with  him,  that  he 
thought  it  wise  to  send  them  away,  and  hide  him- 


The  Northmen. 


37 


self  in  the  Somersetshire  marsh  country.  There  is 
a  pretty  story  told  of  him  that  he  was  hidden  in 
the  hut  of  a  poor  herdsman,  whose  wife,  thinking 
he  was  a  poor  wandering  soldier  as  he  sat  by  the 
fire  mending  his  bow  and  arrows,  desired  him  to 
turn  the  cakes  she  had  set  to  bake  upon  the  hearth. 
Presently  she  found  them  burning,  and  cried  out 
angrily,  “  Lazy  rogue  !  you  can't  turn  the  cakes, 
though  you  can  eat  them  fast  enough.” 

However,  that  same  spring,  the  brave  English 
gained  more  victories  ;  Alfred  came  out  of  his 
hiding  place  and  gathered  them  all  together,  and 
beat  the  Danes,  so  that  they  asked  for  peace.  He 
said  he  would  allow  those  who  had  settled  in  the 
North  of  England  to  stay  there,  provided  they 
would  become  Christians ;  and  he  stood  godfather 
to  their  chief,  and  gave  him  the  name  of  Ethelstane. 
After  this,  Alfred  had  stout  English  ships  built  to 
meet  the  Danes  at  sea  before  they  could  come  and 
land  in  England ;  and  thus  he  kept  them  off,  so 
that  for  all  the  rest  of  his  reign,  and  that  of  his 
son  and  grandsons,  they  could  do  very  little  mis¬ 
chief,  and  for  a  time  left  off  coming  at  all,  but  went 
to  rob  other  countries  that  were  not  so  well  guard¬ 
ed  by  brave  kings. 

But  Alfred  was  not  only  a  brave  warrior.  He 


38  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

was  a  most  good  and  holy  man,  who  feared  God 
above  all  things,  and  tried  to  do  his  very  best  for 
his  people.  He  made  good  laws  for  them,  and 
took  care  that  every  one  should  be  justly  treated, 
and  that  nobody  should  do  his  neighbor  wrong 
without  being  punished.  So  many  Abbeys  had 
been  burnt  and  the  monks  killed  by  the  Danes, 
that  there  were  hardly  any  books  to  be  had,  or 
scholars  to  read  them.  He  invited  learned  men 
from  abroad,  and  wrote  and  translated  books  him¬ 
self  for  them  ;  and  he  had  a  school  in  his  house, 
where  he  made  the  young  nobles  learn  with  his 
own  sons.  He  built  up  the  churches,  and  gave 
alms  to  the  poor  ;  and  he  was  always  ready  to  hear 
the  troubles  of  any  poor  man.  Though  he  was 
always  working  so  hard,  he  had  a  disease  that  used 
to  cause  him  terrible  pain  almost  every  day.  His 
last  years  were  less  peaceful  than  the  middle  ones 
of  his  reign,  for  the  Danes  tried  to  come  again ; 
but  he  beat  them  off  by  his  ships  at  sea,  and  when 
he  died  at  fifty-two  years  old,  in  the  year  901,  he 
left  England  at  rest  and  quiet,'  and  we  always 
think  of  him  as  one  of  the  greatest  and  best  kings 
who  ever  reigned  in  England,  or  in  any  other  coun¬ 
try.  As  long  as  his  children  after  him  and  his 
people  went  on  in  the  good  way  lie  had  taught 


The  Northmen. 


39 


them,  all  prospered  with  them,  and  no  enemies 
hurt  them  ;  and  this  was  all  through  the  reigns  of 
his  son,  his  grandson,  and  great-grandsons.  Their 
council  of  great  men  was  called  by  a  long  word 
that  is  in  our  English,  “Wise  Men’s  Meeting,” 
and  there  they  settled  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom. 
The  king’s  wife  was  not  called  queen,  but  lady ; 
and  what  do  you  think  lady  means?  It  means 
“  loaf-giver  ”  —  giver  of  bread  to  her  household 
and  the  poor.  So  a  lady’s  great  work  is  to  be 
charitable. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  DANISH  CONQUEST. 

A.  d.  958 — 1035. 

'T'HE  last  very  prosperous  king  was  Alfred’s 
great-grandson,  Edgar,  who  was  owned  as 
their  over-lord  by  all  the  kings  of  the  remains 
of  the  Britons  in  Wales  and  Scotland.  Once 
eight  of  these  kings  came  to  meet  him  at 
Chester,  and  rowed  him  in  his  barge  along  the 
river  Dee.  It  was  the  grandest  day  a  king  of 
England  enjoyed  for  many  years.  Edgar  was 
called  the  peaceable,  because  there  were  no  attacks 
by  the  Danes  at  all  throughout  his  reign.  In  fact, 
the  Northmen  and  Danes  had  been  fighting  among 
themselves  at  home,  and  these  fights  generally 
ended  in  some  one  going  off  as  a  Sea-King,  with  all 
his  friends,  and  trying  to  gain  a  new  home  in  some 
fresh  country.  One  great  party  of  Northmen,  un- 
40 


The  Danish  Conquest. 


41 


der  a  very  tall  and  mighty  chief  named  Rollo,  had, 
some  time  before,  thus  gone  to  France,  and  forced 
the  king  to  give  them  a  great  piece  of  his  country, 
just  opposite  to  England,  which  was  called  after 
them  Normandy.  There  they  learned  to  talk 
French,  and  grew  like  Frenchmen,  though  they 
remained  a  great  deal  braver,  and  more  spirited 
than  any  of  their  neighbors. 

There  were  continually  fleets  of  Danish  ships 
coming  to  England ;  and  the  son  of  Edgar,  whose 
name  was  Ethelred,  was  a  helpless,  cowardly  sort 
of  man,  so  slow  and  tardy,  that  his  people  called 
him  Ethelred  the  Unready.  Instead  of  fitting  out 
ships  to  fight  against  the  Danes,  he  took  the  money 
the  ships  ought  to  have  cost  to  pay  them  to  go 
away  without  plundering ;  and  as  to  those  who 
had  come  into  the  country  without  his  leave,  he 
called  them  his  guard,  took  them  into  his  pay,  and 
let  them  live  in  the  houses  of  the  English,  where 
they  were  very  rude,  and  gave  themselves  great 
airs,  making  the  English  feed  them  on  all  their 
best  meat,  and  bread,  and  beer,  and  always  call 
them  Lord  Danes.  He  made  friends  himself  with 
the  Northmen,  or  Normans,  who  had  settled  in 
France,  and  married  Emma,  the  daughter  of  their 
duke  ;  but  none  of  his  plans  prospered :  things 


42  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

grew  worse  and  worse,  and  his  mind  and  his  peo¬ 
ple’s  grew  so  bitter  against  the  Danes,  that  at  last 
it  was  agreed  that,  all  over  the  South  of  England, 
every  Englishman  should  rise  up  in  one  night  and 
murder  the  Dane  who  lodged  in  his  house. 

Among  those  Danes  who  were  thus  wickedly 
killed  was  the  sister  of  the  King  of  Denmark.  Of 
course  he  was  furious  when  he  heard  of  it,  and 
came  over  to  England  determined  to  punish  the 
cruel,  treacherous  king  and  people,  and  take  the 
whole  island  for  his  own.  He  did  punish  the  peo¬ 
ple,  killing,  burning,  and  plundering  Avlierever  he 
went ;  but  he  could  never  get  the  king  into  his 
hands,  for  Ethelred  went  off  in  the  height  of  the 
danger  to  Normandy,  where  he  had  before  sent  his 
wife  Emma,  and  her  children,  leaving  his  eldest 
son  (child  of  his  first  wife),  Edmund  Ironside,  to 
fight  for  the  kingdom  as  best  he  might. 

This  King  of  Denmark  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
English  war ;  but  his  son  Cnut  went  on  with  the 
conquest  he  had  begun,  and  before  long  Ethelred, 
the  Unready  died,  and  Edmund  Ironside  was  mur¬ 
dered,  and  Cnut  became  King  of  England,  as  well 
as  of  Denmark.  He  became  a  Christian,  and  mar¬ 
ried  Emma,  Ethelred’s  widow,  though  she  was 
much  older  than  himself.  He  had  been  a  hard  and 


The  Danish  Conquest. 


43 


cruel  man,  but  lie  now  laid  aside  liis  evil  ways,  and 
became  a  noble  and  wise  and  just  king,  a  lover  of 
churches  and  good  men  ;  and  the  English  seem  to 
have  been  as  well  off  under  him  as  if  he  had  been 
one  of  their  own  kings.  There  is  no  king  of 
whom  more  pleasant  stories  are  told.  One  is  of 
his  wanting  to  go  to  church  at  Ely  Abbey  one  cold 
Candlemas  Day.  Ely  was  on  a  hill  in  the  middle 
of  a  great  marsh.  The  marsh  was  frozen  over ; 
but  the  king’s  servants  told  him  that  the  ice  was 
not  strong  enough  to  bear,  and  they  all  stood  look¬ 
ing  at  it.  Then  out  stepped  a  stout  countryman, 
who  was  so  fat,  that  his  nickname  was  The  Pud¬ 
ding.  “Are  you  all  afraid  ?  ”  he  said.  “  1  will  go 
over  at  once  before  the  king.”  “  Will  }rou  so,” 
said  the  king,  “  then  I  will  come  after  you,  for 
whatever  bears  3'ou  will  bear  me.”  Cnut  was  a 
little,  slight  man,  and  he  got  easily  over,  and  Pud¬ 
ding  got  a  piece  of  land  for  his  reward. 

These  servants  of  the  king  used  to  flatter  him. 
They  told  him  he  was  lord  of  land  and  sea,  and 
that  every  thing  would  obey  him.  “  Let  us  try,” 
said  Cnut,  who  wished  to  show  them  how  foolish 
and  profane  they  were  ;  “  bring  out  my  chair  to 
the  sea-side.”  He  was  at  Southampton  at  the 
time,  close  to  the  sea,  and  the  tide  was  coming  in. 


44 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


“  Now  sea,”  he  said,  as  he  sat  down,  “  I  am  thy 
lord,  dare  not  to  come  near,  nor  to  wet  my  feet.” 
Of  course  the  waves  rolled  on,  and  splashed  over 
him ;  and  he  turned  to  his  servants,  and  bade 
them  never  say  words  that  took  away  from  the 
honor  due  to  the  only  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth. 
He  never  put  on  his  crown  again  after  this,  but 
hung  it  up  in  Winchester  Cathedral.  He  was  a 
thorough  good  king,  and  there  was  much  grief 
when  he  died,  stranger  though  he  was. 

A  great  many  Danes  had  made  their  homes  in 
Yorkshire  and  Lincolnshire,  ever  since  Alfred’s 
time,  and  some  of  their  customs  are  still  left  there, 
and  some  of  their  words.  The  worst  of  them 
was  that  they  were  great  drunkards,  aud  the  En¬ 
glish  learnt  this  bad  custom  of  them. 


CANUTE  BY  THE  SEA-SHORE 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST. 

A.D.  1035— 106G. 

CNUT  left  three  sons;  but  one  was  content  to 
be  only  King  of  Denmark,  and  the  other  two 
died  very  soon.  So  a  great  English  nobleman, 
called  Earl  Godwin,  set  up  as  king,  Edward,  one 
of  those  sons  of  Ethelred  the  Unready  who  had 
been  sent  away  to  Normandy.  He  was  a  very 
kind,  good,  pious  man,  who  loved  to  do  good.  He 
began  the  building  of  our  grand  church  at  West¬ 
minster  Abbey,  and  he  was  so  holy  that  he  was 
called  the  Confessor,  which  is  a  word  for  good  men 
not  great  enough  to  be  called  saints.  He  Avas  too 
good-natured,  as  you  will  say  when  you  hear  that 
one  day,  Avhen  he  Avas  in  bed,  he  saiv  a  thief  come 
cautiously  into  his  room,  open  the  chest  Avliere  his 

treasure  was,  and  take  out  the  money-bags.  In- 
47 


48 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


stead  of  calling  anyone,  or  seizing  the  man,  the 
king  only  said,  sleepily,  “  Take  care,  you  rogue,  or 
my  chancellor  will  catch  you  and  give  you  a  good 
whipping.” 

You  can  fancy  that  nobody  much  minded  such 
a  king  as  this,  and  so  there  were  many  disturbances 
in  his  time.  Some  of  them  rose  out  of  the  king  — 
who  had  been  brought  up  in  Normandy — liking 
the  Normans  better  than  the  English.  They  really 
were  much  cleverer  and  more  sensible,  for  they 
had  learnt  a  great  deal  in  France,  while  the  En¬ 
glish  had  forgotten  much  of  what  Alfred  and  his 
sons  had  taught  them,  and  all  through  the  long,  sad 
reign  of  Ethelred  had  been  getting  more  dull,  and 
clumsy  and  rude.  Moreover,  they  had  learnt  of 
the  Danes  to  be  sad  drunkards  ;  but  both  they  and 
the  Danes  thought  the  Norman  French  fine  gentle¬ 
men,  and  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  them. 

Think,  then,  how  angry  they  all  were  when  it  ' 
began  to  be  said  that  King  Edward  wanted  to 
leave  his  kingdom  of  England  to  his  mother’s  Nor¬ 
man  nephew,  Duke  William,  because  all  his  own 
near  relations  were  still  little  boys,  not  likely  to 
be  grown  up  by  the  time  the  old  king  died.  Many 
of  the  English  wished  for  Harold,  the  son  of  Earl 
Godwin,  a  brave,  spirited  man ;  but  Edward  sent 


The  Norman  Conquest. 


51 


him  to  Normandy,  and  there  Duke  William  made 
him  swear  an  oath  not  to  do  anything  to  hinder 
the  kingdom  from  being  given  to  Duke  William. 

Old  King  Edward  died  soon  after,  and  Harold 
said  at  once  that  his  promise  had  been  forced  and 
cheated  from  him,  so  that  he  need  not  keep  it,  and 
he  was  crowned  King  of  England.  This  filled 
William  with  anger.  He  called  all  his  fighting 
Normans  together,  fitted  out  ships,  and  sailed 
across  the  English  Channel  to  Dover.  The  figure¬ 
head  of  his  own  ship  was  a  likeness  of  his  second 
little  boy,  named  William.  He  landed  at  Peven- 
sey,  in  Sussex,  and  set  up  his  camp  while  Harold 
was  away  in  the  North,  fighting  with  a  runaway 
brother  of  his  own,  who  had  brought  the  Nor¬ 
wegians  to  attack  Yorkshire.  Harold  had  just  won 
a  great  battle  over  these  enemies  when  he  heard 
that  William  and  his  Normans  had  landed,  and  he 
had  to  hurry  the  whole  length  of  England  to  meet 
them. 

Many  of  the  English  would  not  join  him,  be¬ 
cause  they  did  not  want  him  for  their  king.  But 
though  his  army  was  not  large,  it  was  very  brave. 
When  he  reached  Sussex,  he  placed  all  his  men  on 
the  top  of  a  low  hill,  near  Hastings,  aud  caused 
them  to  make  a  fence  all  round,  with  a  ditch  before 


52  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

it,  and  in  the  middle  was  his  own  standard,  with  a 
fighting  man  embroidered  upon  it.  Then  the  Nor¬ 
mans  rode  up  on  their  war-horses  to  attack  him, 
one  brave  knight  going  first,  singing.  The  war- 
horses  stumbled  in  the  ditch,  and  the  long  spears 
of  the  English  killed  both  men  and  horses.  Then 
William  ordered  his  archers  to  shoot  their  arrows 
high  in  the  air.  They  came  down  like  hail  into 
the  faces  and  on  the  heads  of  the  English.  Harold 
himself  was  pierced  by  one  in  the  eye.  The  Nor¬ 
mans  charged  the  fence  again,  and  broke  through; 
and,  by  the  time  night  came  on,  Harold  himself 
and  all  his  brave  Englishmen  were  dead.  They 
did  not  flee  away  ;  they  all  staid,  and  were  killed, 
fighting  to  the  last ;  and  only  then  was  Harold’s 
standard  of  the  fighting  man  rooted  up,  and  Wil¬ 
liam’s  standard  —  a  cross,  which  had  been  blessed 
by  the  Pope — planted  instead  of  it.  So  ended 
the  battle  of  Hastings,  in  the  year  1066. 

The  land  has  had  a  great  many  “  conquests  ” 
hitherto — the  Roman  conquest,  the  English  con¬ 
quest,  the  Danish  conquest,  and  now  the  Norman 
conquest.  But  there  have  been  no  more  since ; 
and  the  kings  and  queens  have  gone  on  in  one  long 
line  ever  since,  from  William  of  Normandy  down 
to  Queen  Victoria. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR. 

A.  d.  1060—1087. 

nr'HE  king  who  had  conquered  England  was  a 
brave,  strong  man,  who  had  been  used  to 
fighting  and  struggling  ever  since  he  was  a  young 
child. 

He  really  feared  God,  and  was  in  many  ways  a 
good  man  ;  but  it  had  not  been  right  of  him  to 
come  and  take  another  people’s  country  by  force  ; 
and  the  having  done  one  wrong  thing  often  makes 
people  grow  worse  and  worse.  Many  of  the  En¬ 
glish  were  unwilling  to  have  William  as  their  king, 
and  his  Norman  friends  were  angry  that  he  would 
not  let  them  have  more  of  the  English  lands,  nor 
break  the  English  laws.  So  they  were  often  rising 
up  against  him  ;  and  each  time  he  had  to  put  them 
53 


54  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

down  he  grew  more  harsh  and  stern.  He  did  not 
want  to  be  cruel ;  but  he  did  many  cruel  things, 
because  it  was  the  only  way  to  keep  England. 

When  the  people  of  Northumberland  rose  against 
him,  and  tried  to  get  back  the  old  set  of  kings,  he 
had  the  whole  country  wasted  with  fire  and  sword, 
till  hardly  a  town  or  village  was  left  standing. 
He  did  this  to  punish  the  Northumbrians,  and 
frighten  the  rest.  But  he  did  another  thing  that 
was  worse,  because  it  was  only  for  his  own  amuse¬ 
ment.  In  Hampshire,  near  his  castle  of  Win¬ 
chester,  there  was  a  great  space  of  heathy  ground, 
and  holly  copse  and  beeches  and  oaks  above  it, 
with  deer  and  boars  running  wild  in  the  glades  — 
a  beautiful  place  for  hunting,  only  that  there  were 
so  many  villages  in  it  that  the  creatures  were  dis¬ 
turbed  and  killed.  William  liked  hunting  more 
than  anything  else  —  his  people  said  he  loved  the 
high  deer  as  if  he  was  their  father,  —  and  to  keep 
the  place  clear  for  them,  he  turned  out  all  the  in¬ 
habitants,  and  pulled  down  their  houses,  and  made 
laws  against  any  one  killing  his  game.  The  place 
he  thus  cleared  is  still  called  the  New  Forest, 
though  it  is  a  thousand  years  old. 

An  old  Norman  law  that  the  English  grumbled 
about  very  much  was,  that  as  soon  as  a  bell  was 


William  the  Conqueror. 


55 


rung,  at  eight  o’clock  every  evening,  everyone  was 
to  put  out  candle  and  fire,  and  go  to  bed.  The 
bell  was  called  the  curfew,  and  many  old  churches 
ring  it  still. 

William  caused  a  great  list  to  be  made  of  all  the 
lands  in  the  country,  and  who  held  them.  We 
have  this  list  still,  and  it  is  called  Domesday  Book. 
It  shews  that  a  great  deal  had  been  taken  from  the 
English  and  given  to  the  Normans.  The  king 
built  castles,  with  immensely  thick,  strong  walls, 
and  loop-hole  windows,  whence  to  shoot  arrows ; 
and  here  he  placed  his  Normans  to  keep  the  En¬ 
glish  down.  But  the  Normans  were  even  more 
unruly  than  the  English,  and  only  his  strong  hand 
kept  them  in  order.  They  rode  about  in  armor  — 
helmets  on  their  heads,  a  shirt  of  mail,  made  of 
chains  of  iron  linked  together,  over  their  bodies, 
gloves  and  boots  of  iron,  swords  by  their  sides, 
and  lances  in  their  hands  —  and  thus  they  could 
bear  down  all  before  them.  They  called  them¬ 
selves  knights,  and  were  always  made  to  take  an 
oath  to  befriend  the  weak,  and  poor,  and  helpless ; 
but  they  did  not  often  keep  it  towards  the  poor 
English. 

William  had  four  sons  —  Robert,  who  was  called 
Court-hose  or  Short-legs ;  William,  called  Rufus, 


56  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

because  lie  had  red  hair  ;  Henry,  called  Beau-clerc, 
or  the  fine  scholar  ;  and  Richard,  who  was  still  a 
lad  when  he  was  killed  by  a  stag  in  the  New 
Forest. 

Robert,  the  eldest,  was  a  wild,  rude,  thoughtless 
youth  ;  but  he  fancied  himself  fit  to  govern  Nor¬ 
mandy,  and  asked  his  father  to  give  it  up  to  him. 
King  William  answered,  “  I  never  take  my  clothes 
off  before  I  go  to  bed,"  meaning  that  Robert  must 
wait  for  his  death.  Robert  could  not  bear  to  be 
laughed  at,  and  was  very  angry.  Soon  after,  when 
he  was  in  the  castle  court,  his  two  brothers,  Wil¬ 
liam  and  Henry,  grew  riotous,  and  poured  water 
down  from  the  upper  windows  on  him  and  his 
friends.  He  flew  into  a  passion,  dashed  up-stairs 
with  his  sword  in  his  hand,  and  might  have  killed 
his  brothers  if  their  father  had  not  come  in  to  pro¬ 
tect  them.  Then  he  threw  himself  on  his  horse 
and  galloped  away,  persuaded  some  friends  to  join 
him,  and  actually  fought  a  battle  with  his  own 
father,  in  which  the  old  king  was  thrown  off  his 
horse,  and  hurt  in  the  hand ;  but  we  must  do  the 
prince  the  justice  to  say  that  when  he  recognized 
his  father  in  the  knight  whom  he  had  unseated,  he 
was  filled  with  grief  and  horror,  and  eagerly  be- 


ROBERT’S  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HIS  FATHER. 


William  the  Conqueror. 


59 


sought  his  pardon,  and  tenderly  raised  him  from 
the  ground.  Then  Robert  wandered  about,  liv¬ 
ing  on  money  that  his  mother,  Queen  Matilda, 
sent  him,  though  his  father  was  angry  with  her 
for  doing  so,  and  this  made  the  first  quarrel  the 
husband  and  wife  had  ever  had. 

Not  long  after,  William  went  to  war  with  the 
King  of  France.  He  had  caused  a  city  to  be  burnt 
down,  and  was  riding  through  the  ruins,  when  his 
horse  trod  on  some  hot  ashes,  and  began  to  plunge. 
The  king  was  thrown  forward  on  the  saddle,  and, 
being  a  very  heavy,  stout  man,  was  so  much  hurt, 
that,  after  a  few  weeks,  in  the  year  1087,  he  died 
at  a  little  monastery,  a  short  way  from  Rouen,  the 
chief  city  of  his  dukedom  of  Normandy. 

He  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  time,  and  he  had 
much  good  in  him ;  and  when  he  lay  on  his  death¬ 
bed  he  grieved  much  for  all  the  evil  he  had  brought 
upon  the  English ;  but  that  could  not  undo  it.  He 
had  been  a  great  church-builder,  and  so  were  his 
Norman  bishops  and  barons.  You  may  always 
know  their  work,  because  it  has  round  pillars,  and 
round  arches,  with  broad  borders  of  zig-zags,  and 
all  manner  of  patterns  round  them. 

In  the  end,  the  coming  of  the  Normans  did  the 


60  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

English  much  good,  by  brightening  them  up  and 
making  them  less  dull  and  heavy ;  but  they  did 
not  like  having  a  king  and  court  who  talked 
French,  and  cared  more  for  Normandy  than  for 
England. 


r 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


WILLIAM  II.,  BUFIIS. 
a.d.  1087—1100. 

ILLIAM  the  Conqueror  was  obliged  to  let 


*  ▼  Normandy  fall  to  Robert,  bis  eldest  son ; 
but  he  thought  he  could  do  as  he  pleased  about 
England,  which  he  had  won  for  himself.  He  had 
sent  off  his  second  son,  William,  to  England,  with 
his  ring  to  Westminister,  giving  him  a  message 


Young  Folk*  TFixt  or g  of  England. 


R2 


that  he  hoped  the  English  people  would  have  him 
for  their  king.  And  they  did  take  him,  though 
they  would  hardly  have  done  so  if  they  had  known 
what  he  would  he  like  when  he  was  left  to  himself. 
But  while  he  was  kept  under  by  his  father,  they 
only  knew  that  he  had  red  hair  and  a  ruddy  face, 
and  had  more  sense  than  his  brother  Robert.  He 
is  sometimes  called  the  Red  King,  but  more  com¬ 
monly  William  Rufus.  Things  went  worse  than 
ever  with  the  poor  English  in  his  time  ;  for  at  least 
William  the  Conqueror  had  made  everybody  mind 
the  law,  but  now  William  Rufus  let  his  cruel  sol¬ 
diers  do  just  as  they  pleased,  and  spoil  what  they 
did  not  want.  It  was  'of  no  use  to  complain,  for 
the  king  would  only  laugh  and  make  jokes.  He 
did  not  care  for  God  or  man  ;  only  for  being  pow¬ 
erful,  for  feasting,  and  for  hunting. 

Just  at  this  time  there  was  a  great  stir  in  Europe. 
Jerusalem  —  that  holy  city,  where  our  blessed 
Lord  had  taught,  where  he  had  been  crucified,  and 
where  he  had  risen  from  the  dead  —  was  a  place 
where  everyone  wished  to  go  and  worship,  and  this 
they  called  going  on  pilgrimage.  A  beautiful 
church  had  once  been  built  over  the  sepulchre 
where  our  Lord  had  lain,  and  enriched  with  gifts. 
But  for  a  long  time  past  Jerusalem  had  been  in 


Willi  am  11.,  Rufus. 


63 


the  hands  of  an  Eastern  people,  who  think  their 
false  prophet,  Mahommed,  greater  than  our  blessed 
Lord.  These  Mahommedans  used  to  rob  and  ill- 
treat  the  pilgrims,  and  make  them  pay  great  sums 
of  money  for  leave  to  come  into  Jerusalem.  At 
last  a  pilgrim,  named  Peter  the  Hermit,  came 
home,  and  got  leave  from  the  Pope  to  try  to  waken 
up  all  the  Christian  princes  and  knights  to  go  to 
the  Holy  Land,  and  fight  to  get  the  Holy  Sepul¬ 
chre  back  into  Christian  hands  again.  He  used  to 
preach  in  the  open  air,  and  the  people  who  heard 
him  were  so  stirred  up  that  they  all  shouted  out, 
“  It  is  God’s  will  !  It  is  God’s  will !  ”  And  each 
who  undertook  to  go  and  fight  in  the  East  received 
a  cross  cut  out  in  cloth,  red  or  white,  to  wear  on 
his  shoulder.  Many  thousands  promised  to  go  on 
this  crusade,  as  they  called  it,  and  among  them 
was  Robert,  Duke  of  Normandy.  But  he  had 
wasted  his  money,  so  that  he  could  not  fit  out  an 
army  to  take  with  him.  So  he  offered  to  give  up 
Normandy  to  Ins  brother  William  while  he  was 
gone,  if  William  would  let  him  have  the  money  he 
wanted.  The  Red  King  was  very  ready  to  make 
such  a  bargain,  and  he  laughed  at  the  Crusaders, 
and  thought  that  they  were  wasting  their  time  and 
trouble. 


64 


Young  Folks  History  of  England. 


They  had  a  very  good  man  to  lead  them,  named 
Godfrey  de  Bouillon  :  and,  after  many  toils  and 
troubles,  they  did  gain  Jerusalem,  and  could  kneel, 
weeping,  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  It  was  proposed 
to  make  Robert  King  of  Jerusalem,  but  he  would 
not  accept  the  offer,  and  Godfrey  was  made  king 
instead,  and  staid  to  guard  the  holy  places,  while 
Duke  Robert  set  out  on  his  return  home. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Red  King  had  gone  on  in 
as  fierce  and  ungodly  a  way  as  ever,  laughing  good 
advice  to  scorn,  and  driving  away  the  good  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  St.  Anselm,  and  everyone 
else  who  tried  to  warn  him  or  withstand  his  wick¬ 
edness.  One  day,  in  the  year  1100,  he  went  out 
to  hunt  deer  in  the  New  Forest,  which  his  father 
had  wasted,  laughing  and  jesting  in  his  rough  way. 
By  and  by  he  was  found  dead  under  an  oak  tree, 
with  an  arrow  through  his  heart ;  and  a  wood¬ 
cutter  took  up  his  body  in  his  cart,  and  carried  it 
to  Winchester  Cathedral,  where  it  was  buried. 

Who  shot  the  arrow  nobody  knew,  and  nobody 
ever  will  know.  Some  thought  it  must  be  a  knight, 
named  Walter  Tyrrell,  to  whom  the  king  had 
given  three  long  good  arrows  that  morning.  He 
rode  straight  away-  to  Southampton,  and  went  off 
to  the  Holy  Land ;  so  it  is  likely  that  he  knew 


DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  RUFUS. 


William  11 .,  Rufus. 


67 


something  about  the  king’s  death.  But  he  never 
seems  to  have  told  any  one,  whether  it  was  only 
an  accident,  or  a  murder,  or  who  did  it.  Anyway, 
it  was  a  fearful  end,  for  a  bad  man  to  die  in  his 
sin,  without  a  moment  to  repent  and  pray. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


HENRY  I.,  BEAU-CLERC. 

A.D.  1100—1135. 

HENRY,  the  brother  of  William  Rufus,  was 
one  of  the  hunting  party ;  and  as  soon  as 
the  cry  spread  through  the  forest  that  the  king  was 
dead,  lie  rode  off  at  full  speed  to  Winchester,  and 
took  possession  of  all  his  brother’s  treasure.  Wil¬ 
liam  Rufus  had  never  been  married,  and  left  no 
children,  and  Henry  was  much  the  least  violent 
and  most  sensible  of  the  brothers ;  and,  as  he 
promised  to  govern  according  to  the  old  laws  of 
England,  he  did  not  find  it  difficult  to  persuade 
the  people  to  let  him  be  crowned  king. 

He  was  not  really  a  good  man,  and  he  could  be 
very  cruel  sometimes,  as  well  as  false  and  cunning  ; 
but  he  kept  good  order,  and  would  not  allow  such 
horrible  things  to  be  done  as  in  his  brother’s  time. 
So  the  English  were  better  off  than  they  had  been, 

63 


Henry  /.,  Beaio-clerc. 


69 


and  used  to  say  the  king  would  let  no  one  break 
the  laws  but  himself.  They  were  pleased,  too,  that 
Henry  married  a  lady  who  was  half  English  — 
Maude,  the  daughter  of  Malcolm  Greathead,  King 
of  Scotland,  and  of  a  lady  of  the  old  English  royal 
line.  They  loved  her  greatly,  and  called  her  good 
Queen  Maude. 

Robert  came  back  to  Normandy,  and  tried  to 
make  himself  King  of  England ;  but  Henry  soon 
drove  him  back.  The  brothers  went  on  quarreling 
for  some  years,  and  Robert  managed  Normandy 
miserably,  and  wasted  his  money,  so  that  he  some¬ 
times  had  no  clothes  to  wear,  and  lay  in  bed  for 
want  of  them. 

Some  of  the  Normans  could  not  bear  this  any 
longer,  and  invited  Henry  to  come  and  take  the 
dukedom.  He  came  with  an  army,  many  of  whom 
were  English,  and  fought  a  battle  with  Robert  and 
his  faithful  Normans  at  Tenchebray,  in  Normandy. 
They  gained  a  great  victory,  and  the  English 
thought  it  made  up  for  Hastings.  Poor  Robert 
was  made  prisoner  by  his  brother,  who  sent  him  off 
to  Cardiff  Castle,  in  Wales,  where  he  lived  for 
twenty-eight  years,  and  then  died,  and  was  buried 
in  Gloucester  Cathedral,  with  his  figure  made  in 
bog  oak  over  his  monument. 


70  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

Henry  had  two  children  —  William  and  Maude. 
The  girl  was  married  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
and  the  boy  was  to  be  the  husband  of  Alice, 
daughter  to  the  Count  of  Anjou,  a  great  French 
Prince,  whose  lands  were  near  Normandy.  It 
was  the  custom  to  marry  children  very  young 
then,  before  they  were  old  enough  to  leave  their 
parents  and  make  a  home  for  themselves.  So 
William  was  taken  by  his  father  to  Anjou,  and 
there  married  to  the  little  girl,  and  then  she  was 
left  behind,  while  he  was  to  return  to  England 
with  his  father.  Just  as  he  was  going  to  embark, 
a  man  came  to  the  king,  and  begged  to  have  the 
honor  of  taking  him  across  in  his  new  vessel,  called 
the  White  Ship,  saying  that  his  father  had  steered 
William  the  Conqueror’s  ship.  Henry  could  not 
change  his  own  plans  ;  but,  as  the  man  begged  so 
hard,  he  said  his  son,  the  young  bridegroom,  and 
his  friends  might  go  in  the  White  .Ship.  They 
sailed  in  the  evening,  and  there  was  a  great  merry- 
making  on  board,  till  the  sailors  grew  so  drunk 
that  they  did  not  know  now  to  guide  the  ship,  and 
ran  her  against  a  rock.  She  filled  "with  water  and 
began  to  sink.  A  boat  was  lowered,  and  William 
safely  placed  in  it ;  but,  just  as  he  was  rowed  off 
he  heard  the  cries  of  the  ladies  who  were  left  be- 


Henry  /.,  Beau-olerc. 


71 


hind,  and  caused  the  oarsmen  to  turn  back  for 
them.  So  many  drowning  wretches  crowded  into 
it,  as  soon  as  it  came  near,  that  it  sank  with  their 
weight,  and  all  were  lost.  Only  the  top-mast  of 
the  ship  remained  above  water,  and  to  it  clung  a 
butcher  and  the  owner  of  the  ship  all  night  long. 
When  daylight  came,  and  the  owner  knew  that 
the  king’s  son  was  reall}'  dead,  and  by  his  fault, 
he  lost  heart,  let  go  the  mast  and  was  drowned. 
Only  the  butcher  was  taken  off  alive  ;  and  for  a 
long  time  no  one  durst  tell  the  king  what  had 
happened.  At  last  a  boy  was  sent  to  fall  at  his 
feet,  and  tell  him  his  son  was  dead.  He  was  a 
broken-hearted  man,  and  never  knew  gladness 
again  all  the  rest  of  his  life. 

His  daughter  Maude  had  lost  her  German  hus¬ 
band,  and  came  home.  He  made  her  marry 
Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  the  brother  of  his  son’s  wife, 
and  called  upon  all  his  chief  noblemen  to  swear 
that  they  would  take  her  for  their  queen  in 
England  and  their  duchess  in  Normandy  after 
his  own  death. 

He  did  not  live  much  longer.  His  death  was 
caused,  in  the  year  1135,  by  eating  too  much  of 
the  fish  called  lamprey,  and  he  was  "buried  in 
Reading  Abbey. 


CHAPTER  X. 

STEPHEN. 
a.d.  1135 — 1154. 

NEITHER  English  nor  Normans  had  ever 
been  ruled  by  a  woman,  and  the  Empress 
Maude,  as  she  still  called  herself,  was  a  proud,  dis¬ 
agreeable,  ill-tempered  woman,  whom  nobody  liked. 
So  her  cousin.  Stephen  de  Blois  —  whose  mother, 
72 


Stephen. 


73 


Adela,  had  been  daughter  of  William  the  Con¬ 
queror —  thought  to  obtain  the  crown  of  England 
by  promising  to  give  everyone  what  they  wished. 
It  was  very  wrong  of  him  ;  for  he,  like  all  the 
other  barons,  had  sworn  that  Maude  should  reign. 
But  the  people  knew  he  was  a  kindly,  gracious 
sort  of  person,  and  greatly  preferred  him  to  her. 
So  he  was  crowned ;  and  at  once  all  the  Norman 
barons,  whom  King  Henry  had  kept  down,  began 
to  think  they  could  have  their  own  way.  They 
built  strong  castles,  and  hired  men,  with  whom 
they  made  war  upon  each  other,  robbed  one  an¬ 
other’s  tenants,  and,  when  they  saw  a  peaceable 
traveler  on  his  way,  they  would  dash  down  upon 
him,  drag  him  into  the  castle,  take  away  all  the 
jewels  or  money  he  had  about  him,  or,  if  he  had 
none,  they  woxdd  shut  him  up  and  torment  him  till 
he  could  get  His  friends  to  pay  them  a  sum  to  let 
him  loose. 

Stephen,  who  was  a  kind-hearted  man  himself, 
tried  to  stop  these  cruelties ;  but  then  the  barons 
turned  round  on  him,  told  him  he  was  not  their 
proper  king,  and  invited  Maude  to  come  and  be 
crowned  in  his  stead.  She  came  very  willingly; 
and  her  uncle,  King  David  of  Scotland,  set  out 
with  an  army  to  fight  for  her;  but  all  the  English 


74  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

in  the  north  came  out  to  drive  him  back ;  and 
they  beat  him  and  his  Scots  at  what  they  call  the 
Battle  of  the  Standard,  because  the  English  had  a 
holy  standard,  which  was  kept  in  Durham  Cathe¬ 
dral.  Soon  after,  Stephen  was  taken  prisoner  at  a 
battle  at  Lincoln,  and  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
Maude  from  being  queen  but  her  own  bad  temper. 
She  went  to  Winchester,  and  was  there  proclaimed  ; 
but  she  would  not  speak  kindly  or  gently  to  the 
people  ;  and  when  her  friends  entreated  her  to  re¬ 
ply  more  kindly,  she  flew  into  a  passion,  and  it  is 
even  said  that  she  gave  a  box  on  the  ear  to  her 
uncle  —  the  good  King  of  Scotland,  who  had  come 
to  help  her  —  for  reproving  her  for  her  harsh  an¬ 
swers.  When  Stephen's  wife  came  to  beg  her  to 
set  him  free,  promising  that  he  should  go  away 
beyond  the  seas,  and  never  interfere  with  her 
again,  she  would  not  listen,  and  drove  her  away. 
But  she  soon  found  how  foolish  she  had  been. 
Stephen’s  friends  would  have  been  willing  that  he 
should  give  up  trying  to  be  king,  but  they  could 
not  leave  him  in  prison  for  life ;  and  so  they  went 
on  fighting  for  him,  while  more  and  more  of  the 
English  joined  them,  as  they  felt  how  bad  and  un¬ 
kind  a  queen  they  had  in  the  Empress.  Indeed, 
she  was  so  proud  and  violent,  that  her  husband 


Stephen. 


75 


would  not  come  over  to  England  to  help  her, 
but  staid  to  govern  Normandy.  She  was  soon  in 
great  distress,  and  had  to  flee  from  Winchester, 
riding  through  the  midst  of  the  enemy,  and  losing 
almost  all  her  friends  by  the  way  as  they  were 
slain  or  made  prisoners.  Her  best  helper  of  all  — 
Earl  Robert  of  Gloucester  —  was  taken  while 
guarding  her  ;  and  she  could  only  get  to  his  town 
of  Gloucester  by  lying  down  in  a  coffin,  with  holes 
for  air,  and  being  thus  carried  through  all  the 
country,  where  she  had  made  everyone  hate  her. 

Stephen’s  wife  offered  to  set  the  Earl  free,  if 
the  other  side  would  release  her  husband  ;  and  this 
exchange  was  brought  about.  Robert  then  went 
to  Normandy,  to  fetch  Maude’s  little  son  Henry, 
who  was  ten  years  old,  leaving  hex1,  as  he  thought, 
safe  in  Oxfoi’d  Castle  ;  but  no  sooner  was  he  gone 
than  Stephen  brought  his  army,  and  besieged  the 
Castle  —  that  is,  he  brought  his  men  round  it,  tried 
to  climb  up  the  walls,  or  beat  them  down  with 
heavy  beams,  and  hindered  any  food  from  being 
brought  in.  Everything  in  the  castle  that  could 
be  eaten  was  gone  ;  but  Maude  was  determined  not 
to  fall  into  her  enemy’s  hands.  It  was  the  depth  of 
winter ;  the  river  below  the  walls  was  frozen  over, 
and  snow  was  on  the  ground.  One  night,  Maude 


76  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

dressed  herself  and  three  of  her  knights  all  in 
white,  and  they  were,  one  by  one,  let  down  by 
ropes  from  the  walls.  No  one  saw  them  in  the 
snow.  They  crossed  the  river  on  the  ice,  walked  a 
great  part  of  the  night,  and  at  last  came  to  Abing¬ 
don,  where  horses  were  waiting  for  them,  and 
thence  they  rode  to  Wallingford,  where  Maude 
met  her  little  son. 

There  was  not  much  more  fighting  after  this. 
Stephen  kept  all  the  eastern  part  of  the  kingdom, 
and  Henry  was  brought  up  at  Gloucester  till  his 
father  sent  for  him,  to  take  leave  of  him  before 
going  on  a  crusade.  Geoffrey  died  during  this 
crusade.  He  was  fond  of  hunting,  and  was  gene¬ 
rally  seen  with  a  spray  of  broom  blossom  in  his 
cap.  The  French  name  for  this  plant  is  genet ; 
and  thus  his  nickname  was  “  Plantagenet ;  ”  and 
this  became  a  kind  of  surname  to  the  kings  of 
England. 

Henry,  called  Fitz-empress — or  “the  Empress’s 
son  ”  —  came  to  England  again  as  soon  as  he  was 
grown  up ;  but  instead  of  going  to  war,  he  made 
an  agreement  with  Stephen.  Henry  would  not 
attack  Stephen  any  more,  but  leave  him  to  reign 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  provided  Stephen  engaged 
that  Henry  should  reign  instead  of  his  own  son 


Stephan. 


77 


after  his  death.  This  made  Stephen’s  son,  Eus¬ 
tace,  veiy  angry,  and  he  went  away  in  a  rage  to 
raise  troops  to  maintain  his  cause ;  but  he  died 
suddenly  in  the  midst  of  his  wild  doings,  and  the 
king,  his  father,  did  not  live  long  after  him,  but 
died  in  the  year  1154. 

Maude  had  learnt  wisdom  by  her  misfortunes. 
She  had  no  further  desire  to  be  queen,  but  lived 
a  retired  life  in  a  convent,  and  was  much  more 
respected  there  than  as  queen. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


HENKY  II.,  FITZ-EMPKESS. 

A.  d.  1154 — 1189. 

ENRY  Fitz-Empress  is  counted  as  the  first 


X  X  king  of  the  Plantagenet  family,  also  called 
the  House  of  Anjou.  He  was  a  very  clever,  brisk, 
spirited  man,  who  hardly  ever  sat  down,  but  was 
always  going  from  place  to  place,  and  who  would 
let  no  one  disobey  him.  He  kept  everybody  in 
order,  pulled  down  almost  all  the  Castles  that  had 
been  built  in  Stephen’s  time,  and  would  not  let 
the  barons  ill-treat  the  people.  Indeed,-  everyone 
had  been  so  mixed  up  together  during  the  wars 
in  Stephen’s  reign,  that  the  grandchildren  of  the 
Normans  who  had  come  over  with  William  the 
Conqueror  were  now  quite  English  in  their  feel¬ 
ings.  French  was,  however,  chiefly  spoken  at  court. 
The  king  was  really  a  Frenchman,  and  he  married 
a  French  wife  Eleanor,  the  lady  of  Aquitaine,  a 


78 


MURDER  OF  TIIOMAS  A-BECKET. 


Henry  II. ,  Fitz-empress. 


81 


great  dukedom  in  the  South  of  France ;  and,  as 
Henry  had  already  Normandy  and  Anjou,  he  really 
was  lord  of  nearly  half  France.  He  ruled  England 
well ;  but  he  was  not  a  good  man,  for  he  cared  for 
power  and  pleasure  more  than  for  what  was  right ; 
and  sometimes  he  fell  into  such  rages  that  he 
would  roll  on  the  floor,  and  bite  the  rushes  and 
sticks  it  was  strewn  with.  He  made  many  laws. 
One  was  that,  if  a  priest  or  monk  was  thought  to 
have  committed  any  crime,  he  should  be  tried  by 
the  king’s  judge,  instead  of  the  bishop.  The  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Canterbury,  Thomas  a  Becket,  did  not 
think  it  right  to  consent  to  this  law ;  and,  though 
he  and  the  king  had  once  been  great  friends, 
Henry  was  so  angry  with  him  that  he  was  forced 
to  leave  England,  and  take  shelter  with  the  King 
of  France.  Six  years  passed  by,  and  the  king  pre¬ 
tended  to  be  reconciled  to  him,  but  still,  when 
they  met,  would  not  give  him  the  kiss  of  peace. 
The  archbishop  knew  that  this  showed  that  the 
king  still  hated  him  ;  but  his  flock  had  been  so 
long  without  a  shepherd  that  he  thought  it  his 
duty  to  go  back  to  them.  Just  after  his  return, 
he  laid  under  censure  some  persons  who  had  given 
offence.  They  went  and  complained  to  the  king, 
and  Henry  exclaimed  in  a  passion,  “  Will  no  one 


82  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


rid  me  of  this  turbulent  priest  ?  ”  Four  of  his 
knights  who  heard  these  words  set  forth  for  Can¬ 
terbury.  The  archbishop  guessed  why  they  were 
come ;  but  he  would  not  flee  again,  and  waited  for 
them  by  the  altar  in  the  cathedral,  not  even  letting 
the  doors  be  shut.  There  they  slew  him;  and 
thither,  in  great  grief  at  the  effect  of  his  own 
words,  the  king  came  —  three  years  later — to 
show  his  penitence  by  entering  barefoot,  kneeling 
before  Thomas’s  tomb,  and  causing  every  priest  or 
monk  in  turn  to  strike  him  with  a  rod.  "We  should 
not  exactly  call  Thomas  a  martyr  now,  but  he  was 
thought  so  then,  because  he  died  for  upholding  the 
privileges  of  the  Church,  and  he  was  held  to  be  a 
yen'  great  saint. 

While  this  dispute  was  going  on,  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  called  Strongbow,  one  of  Henry’s  no¬ 
bles,  had  gone  over  to  Ireland,  and  obtained  a  little 
kingdom  there,  which  he  professed  to  hold  of 
Henry  ;  and  thus  the  Kings  of  England  became 
Lords  ot  Ireland,  though  for  a  long  time  they  only 
had  the  Province  of  Leinster,  and  were  always  at 
war  with  the  Irish  around. 

Henry  was  a  most  powerful  king  ;  but  his  latter 
years  Avere  very  unhappy.  His  wife  was  not  a  good 
woman,  and  her  sons  were  all  disobedient  and  re- 


Henry  II,  Fitz-empress. 


83 


bellious.  Once  all  the  three  eldest,  Henry,  Rich¬ 
ard,  and  Geoffrey,  and  their  mother,  ran  away 
together  from  his  court,  and  began  to  make  war 
upon  him.  He  was  much  stronger  and  wiser  than 
they,  so  he  soon  forced  them  to  submit ;  and  he 
sent  Queen  Eleanor  away,  and  shut  her  up  in  a 
strong  castle  in  England  as  long  as  he  lived.  Her 
sons  were  much  more  fond  of  her  than  of  their 
father,  and  they  thought  this  usage  so  hard,  that 
they  were  all  the  more  ready  to  break  out  against 
him.  The  eldest  son,  Henry,  was  leading  an  army 
against  his  father,  when  he  was  taken  ill,  and  felt 
himself  dying.  He  sent  an  entreaty  that  his  father 
would  forgive  him,  and  come  to  see  him ;  but  the 
young  man  had  so  often  been  false  and  treacherous, 
that  Henry  feared  it  was  only  a  trick  to  get  him  as 
a  prisoner,  and  only  sent  his  ring  and  a  message  of 
pardon ;  and  young  Henry  died,  pressing  the  ring 
to  his  lips,  and  longing  to  hear  his  father’s  voice. 

Geoffrey,  the  third  son,  was  killed  by  a  fall  from 
his  horse,  and  there  were  only  two  left  alive,  Rich¬ 
ard  and  John.  Just  at  tliis  time,  news  came  that 
the  Mahommedans  in  the  Holy  Land  had  won  Je¬ 
rusalem  back  again  ;  and  the  pope  called  on  all 
Christian  princes  to  leave  off  quarreling,  and  go  on 
a  crusade  to  recover  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 


84  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

The  kings  of  England  and  France,  j'oung  Rich¬ 
ard,  and  many  more,  were  roused  to  take  the  cross ; 
but  while  arrangements  for  going  were  being  made, 
a  fresh  dispute  about  them  arose,  and  Richard  went 
away  in  a  rage,  got  Inis  friends  together,  and,  with 
King  Philip  of  France  to  help  him,  began  to  make 
war.  His  father  was  feeble,  and  worn  out,  and 
could  not  resist  as  in  former  times.  He  fell  ill, 
and  gave  up  the  struggle,  saying  he  would  grant 
all  they  asked.  The  list  of  Richard's  friends 
whom  he  was  to  pardon  was  brought  to  him,  and 
the  first  name  he  saw  in  it  was  that  of  John,  his 
youngest  son,  and  his  darling,  the  one  who  had 
never  before  rebelled.  That  quite  broke  his  heart, 
his  illness  grew  worse,  and  he  talked  about  an  old 
eagle  being  torn  to  pieces  by  his  eaglets.  And  so, 
in  the  year  1189,  Henry  II.  died  the  saddest  death, 
perhaps,  that  au  old  man  can  die,  for  his  sons  had 
brought  down  his  gray  hairs  with  sorrow  to  the 
grave. 


HENRY  II.’S  TOMB  AT  FONTEVRAND 


CHAPTER  XII. 


RICHARD  I.,  LION-HEART. 


A.D.  1180—1109. 


RICHARD  was  greatly  grieved  at  his  father’s 
death,  and  when  lie  came  and  looked  at  the 
dead  body,  in  Fontevraud  Abbey  Church,  he  cried 
out,  “  Alas  !  it  was  I  who  killed  him  !  ”  But  it 
was  too  late  now :  he  could  not  make  up  for  what 
he  had  done,  and  he  had  to  think  about  the  Cru¬ 
sade  he  had  promised  to  make.  Richard  was  so 
brave  and  strong  that  he  was  called  Lion-heart ; 
he  was  very  noble  and  good  in  some  ways,  but  his 
fierce,  passionate  temper  did  him  a  great  deal  of 
harm.  He,  and  King  Philip  of  France,  and  several 
other  great  princes,  all  met  in  the  island  of  Sicily 
in  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  thence  sailed  for  the 
Holy  Land.  The  lady  whom  Richard  was  to  marry 
came  to  meet  him  in  Sicily.  Her  name  was  Beren- 
garia ;  but,  as  it  was  Lent,  he  did  not  marry  her 
87 


88  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

then.  She  went  on  to  the  Holy  Land  in  a  ship 
with  his  sister  Joan,  and  tried  to  land  in  the  island 
of  Cypress;  but  the  people  were  inhospitable,  and 
would  not  let  them  come.  So  Richard,  in  his  great 
anger,  conquered  the  isle,  and  was  married  to 
Berengaria  there. 

The  Mahommedans  who  held  Palestine  at  that 
time  were  called  Saracens,  and  had  a  very  brave 
prince  at  their  head  named  Saladin,  which  means 
Splendor  of  Religion.  He  was  very  good,  just, 
upright,  and  truth-telling,  and  his  Saracens  fought 
so  well,  that  the  Crusaders  would  hardly  have  won 
a  bit  of  ground  if  the  Lion-heart  had  not  been  so 
brave.  At  last,  they  did  take  one  city  on  the 
coast  named  Acre ;  and  one  of  the  princes,  Leo¬ 
pold,  Duke  of  Austria,  set  up  Lis  banner  on  the 
walls.  Richard  did  not  think  it  ought  to  be  there  : 
he  pulled  it  up  and  threw  it  down  into  the  ditch, 
asking  the  duke  how  he  durst  take  the  honors  of  a 
king.  Leopold  was  sullen,  and  brooded  over  the 
insult,  and  King  Philip  thought  Richard  so  over¬ 
bearing,  that  he  could  not  bear  to  be  in  the  army 
with  him  any  longer.  In  truth,  though  Philip  had 
pretended  to  be  his  friend,  and  had  taken  his  part 
against  his  father,  that  was  really  only  to  hurt 
King  Henry ;  he  hated  Richard  quite  as  much,  or 


RICHARD  REMOVING  THE  ARCHDUKE’S  DANNER. 


Richard  /.,  Lion^heart. 


91 


more,  and  only  wanted  to  get  home  first  in  order 
to  do  him  as  much  harm  as  he  could  while  he 
was  away.  So  Philip  said  it  was  too  hot  for  him 
in  the  Holy  Land,  and  made  him  ill.  He  sailed 
back  to  France,  while  Richard  remained,  though 
the  climate  really  did  hurt  his  health,  and  he  often 
had  fevers  there.  When  he  was  ill,  Saladin  used  to 
send  him  grapes,  and  do  all  he  could  to  show  how 
highly  he  thought  of  so  brave  a  man.  Once  Sal¬ 
adin  sent  him  a  beautiful  horse  ;  Richard  told  the 
Earl  of  Salisbury  to  try  it,  and  no  sooner  was  the 
earl  mounted,  than  the  horse  ran  away  with  him 
to  the  Saracen  army.  Saladin  was  very  much 
vexed,  and  was  afraid  it  would  be  taken  for  a 
trick  to  take  the  English  king  prisoner,  and  he 
gave  the  earl  a  quieter  horse  to  ride  back  with. 
Richard  fought  one  terrible  battle  at  Joppa  with 
the  Saracens,  and  then  he  tried  to  go  on  to  take 
Jerusalem;  but  he  wanted  to  leave  a  good  strong- 
castle  behind  him  at  Ascalon,  and  set  all  his  men 
to  work  to  build  it  up.  When  they  grumbled, 
he  worked  with  them,  and  asked  the  duke  to 
do  the  same  ;  but  Leopold  said  gruffly  that  he 
was  not  a  carpenter  or  a  mason.  Richard  was  so 
provoked  that  he  struck  him  a  blow,  and  the 
duke  went  home  in  a  rage. 


92 


Fount/  Folks  History  of  Enyland. 


So  many  men  had  gone  home,  that  Richard 
found  his  army  was  not  strong  enough  to  try  to 
take  Jerusalem.  He  was  greatly  grieved,  for  he 
knew  it  was  his  own  fault  for  not  having  shewn  . 
the  temper  of  a  Crusader ;  and  when  he  came  to 
the  top  of  a  hill  whence  the  Holy  City  could  be 
seen,  he  would  not  look  at  it,  but  turned  away, 
saying,  “  They  who  are  not  worthy  to  win  it  are  . 
not  worthy  to  behold  it.”  It  was  of  no  use  for  . 
him  to  stay  with  so  few  men  ;  besides,  tidings  came  ^ 
from  home  that  King  Philip  and  his  own  brother,  . 
John,  were  doing  all  the  mischief  they  could.  So  . 
he  made  a  peace  for  three  years  between  the  Sara-  j 
cens  and  Christians,  hoping  to  come  back  again  ... 
after  that  to  rescue  Jerusalem.  But  on  his  way  ... 
home  there  were  terrible  storms ;  his  ships  were  _ 
scattered,  and  his  own  ship  was  driven  up  into  ^ 
the  Adriatic  Sea,  where  lie  was  robbed  by  pirates, 
or  sea  robbers,  and  then  was  shipwrecked.  There 
was  no  way  for  him  to  get  home  but  through  the  ] 
lands  of  Leopold  of  Austria;  so  he  pretended  to  . 
be  a  merchant,  and  set  out  attended  only  by  a 
boy.  He  fell  ill  at  a  little  inn,  and  while  he  was  in 
bed  the  boy  went  into  the  kitchen  witK  the  king’s  . 
glove  in  his  belt.  It  was  an  embroidered  glove, 
such  as  merchants  never  used,  and  people  asked 


Richard  I.,  Lion-heart. 


93 


11  questions,  and  guessed  that  the  boy’s  master  must 
pe  some  great  man.  The  Duke  of  Austria  heard 
)f  it,  sent  soldiers  to  take  him,  and  shut  him  up 
is  a  prisoner  in  one  of  his  castles.  Afterwards, 
die  duke  gave  him  up  for  a  large  sum  of  money  to 
he  Emperor  of  Germany.  All  this  time  Richard’s 
vife  and  mother  had  been  in  great  sorrow  and 
ear,  trying  to  find  out  what  had  become  of  him. 
t  is  said  that  he  was  found  at  last  by  his  friend, 
he  minstrel  Blondel.  A  minstrel  was  a  person 
vho  made  verses  and  sang  them.  Many  of  the 
lobles  and  knights  in  Queen  Eleanor’s  Duchy  of 
Vquitaine  were  minstrels  —  and  Richard  was  a 
rery  good  one  himself,  and  amused  himself  in  his 
■aptivity  by  making  verses.  This  is  certainly  true 
—  though  I  cannot  answer  for  it  that  the  pretty 
tory.  is  true,  which  says  that  Blondel  sung  at 
,11  the  castle  courts  in  Germany,  till  he  heard 
iis  master’s  voice  take  up  and  reply  to  his  song. 

The  Queens,  Eleanor  and  Berengaria,  raised  a 
ansom  — -that  is,  a  sum  of  money  to  buy  his  free- 
lorn —  though  his  brother  John  tried  to  prevent 
hem,  and  the  King  of  France  did  his  best  to  hin- 
ler  the  emperor  from  releasing  him ;  but  the  Pope 
Qsisted  that  the  brave  crusader  should  be  set  at 
iberty  :  and  Richard  came  home,  after  a  year  and 


94  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


a-half  of  captivity.  He  freely  forgave  John  for 
all  the  mischief  he  had  done  or  tried  to  do, 
though  he  thought  so  ill  of  him  as  to  say,  “  I 
wish  I  may  forget  John’s  injuries  to  me  as  soon 
as  he  will  forget  my  pardon  of  him.” 

Richard  only  lived  two  years  after  he  came 
back.  He  was  besieging  a  castle  in  Aquitaine, 
where  there  was  some  treasure  that  he  thought  was 
unlawfully  kept  from  him,  when  he  was  struck  in 
the  shoulder  by  a  bolt  from  a  cross-bow,  and  the 
surgeons  treated  it  so  unskilfully  that  in  a  few 
days  he  died.  The  man  who  had  shot  the  bolt  was 
made  prisoner,  but  the  Lion-heart’s  last  act  was 
to  command  that  no  harm  should  be  done  to  him. 
The  soldiers,  however,  in  their  grief  and  rage  for 
the  king,  did  put  him  to  death  in  a  cruel  manner. 

Richard  desired  to  be  burned  at  the  feet  of  his 
father,  in  Fontevraud  Abbey,  where  he  once 
bewailed  his  undutiful  conduct,  and  now  wished 
his  body  forever  to  lie  in  penitence.  The  figures 
in  stone,  of  the  father,  mother,  and  son,  who 
quarreled  so  much  in  life,  all  lie  on  one  monument 
now,  and  with  them  Richard’s  youngest  sister 
Joan,  who  died  nearly  at  the  same  time  as  he 
died,  partly  of  grief  for  him. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


JOHN,  LACKLAND. 


A.D.  1 199  I2l6. 


S  a  kind  of  joke,  John,  King  Henry’s  young- 


J.  est  son,  had  been  called  Lackland,  because 
lie  had  nothing  when  his  brothers  each  had  some 
great  dukedom.  The  name  suited  him  only  too 
well  before  the  end  of  his  life.  The  English  made 
him  king  at  once.  They  always  did  take  a  grown¬ 
up  man  for  their  king,  if  the  last  king’s  son  was 
but  a  child.  Richard  had  never  had  any  children, 
but  his  brother  Geoffrey,  who  was  older  than  John, 
had  left  a  son  named  Arthur,  who  was  about 
twelve  years  old,  and  who  was  rightly  the  Duke 
of  Normandy  and  Count  of  Anjou.  King  Philip, 
who  was  always  glad  to  vex  whoever  was  king  of 
England,  took  Arthur  under  his  protection,  and 
promised  to  get  Normandy  out  of  John’s  hands. 
However,  John  had  a  meeting  with  him  and  per- 


95 


96  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


suadecl  him  to  desert  Arthur,  and  marry  his  so 
Louis  to  John's  own  niece,  Blanche,  who  had 
chance  of  being  queen  of  part  of  Spain.  Still  A) 
thur  lived  at  the  French  King’s  court,  and  whe 
he  was  sixteen  years  old,  Philip  helped  him  t 
raise  an  army  and  go  to  try  his  fortune  agains  : 
his  uncle.  He  laid  siege  to  Mirabeau,  a  towiM 
where  his  grandmother,  Queen  Eleanor,  was  living 
John,  who  was  then  in  Normandy,  hurried  to  he 
rescue,  heat  Arthur's  army,  made  him  prisoner  ana  i| 
carried  him  off,  first  to  Rouen,  and  then  to  th  | 
strong  castle  of  Falaise.  Nobody  quite  know]  | 
what  was  done  to  him  there.  The  governor; 
Hubert  de  Burgh,  once  found  him  fighting  hard! 
though  with  no  weapon  but  a  stool,  to  defend  him 
self  from  some  ruffians  who  had  been  sent  to  pu 
out  his  eyes.  Hubert  saved  him  from  these  men 
but  shortly  after  this  good  man  was  sent  elsewhere 
by  the  king,  and  John  came  himself  to  Falaise  .j 
Arthur  was  never  seen  alive  again,  and  it  is  be  ■ 
lieved  that  John  took  him  out  in  a  boat  in  the 
river  at  night,  stabbed  him  with  his  own  hand,  ami  i 
threw  his  body  into  the  river.  There  was,  an) 
way,  no  doubt  that  John  was  guilty  of  his  nephew’: 
death,  and  he  was  fully  known  to  be  one  of  thA 
most  selfish  and  cruel  men  who  ever  lived  ;  and  S(  < 


John ,  Lackland. 


99 


lazy,  that  he  let  Philip  take  Normandy  from  him, 
without  stirring  a  finger  to  save  the  grand  old 
dukedom  of  his  forefathers  ;  so  that  nothing  is  left 
of  it  to  us  now  but  the  four  little  islands,  Guernsey, 
Jersey,  Alderney,  and  Sark. 

Matters  became  much  worse  in  England,  when 
he  quarreled  with  the  Pope,  whose  name  was  Inno¬ 
cent,  about  who  should  be  archbishop  of  Canter¬ 
bury.  The  Pope  wanted  a  man  named  Stephen 
Langton  to  be  archbishop,  but  the  king  swore  he 
should  never  come  into  the  kingdom.  Then  the 
Pope  punished  the  kingdom,  by  forbidding  all 
church  services  in  all  parish  churches.  This  was 
termed  putting  the  kingdom  under  an  interdict. 
John  was  not  much  distressed  by  this,  though  his 
people  were  ;  but  when  he  found  that  Innocent 
was  stirring  up  the  King  of  France  to  come  to  at¬ 
tack  him,  he  thought  it  time  to  make  his  peace 
with  the  Pope.  So  he  not  only  consented  to  re¬ 
ceive  Stephen  Langton,  but  he  even  knelt  down 
before  the  Pope’s  legate,  or  messenger,  and  took  off 
his  crown,  giving  it  up  to  the  legate,  in  token  that 
he  only  held  the  kingdom  from  the  Pope.  It  was 
two  or  three  days  before  it  was  given  back  to  him  : 
and  the  Pope  held  himself  to  be  lord  of  England, 


100  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 


and  made  the  king  and  people  pay  him  money 
whenever  he  demanded  it. 

Ail  this  time  John’s  cruelty  and  savageness  were 
making  the  whole  kingdom  miserable  ;  and  at  last 
the  great  barons  could  bear  it  no  longer.  They 
met  together  and  agreed  that  they  would  make  John 
swear  to  govern  by  the  good  old  English  laws  that 
had  prevailed  before  the  Normans  came.  The  diffi¬ 
culty  was  to  be  sure  of  what  these  laws  were,  for  most 
of  the  copies  of  them  had  been  lost.  However, 
Archbishop  Langton  and  some  of  the  wisest  of  the 
barons  put  together  a  set  of  laws  —  some  copied, 
some  recollected,  some  old,  some  new  —  but  all 
such  as  to  give  the  barons  some  control  of  the  king, 
and  hinder  him  from  getting  savage  soldiers  to¬ 
gether  to  frighten  people  into  doing  whatever  he 
chose  to  make  them.  These  laws  they  called 
Magna  Carta,  or  the  great  charter ;  and  they  all 
came  in  armor,  and  took  John  by  surprise  at  Wind¬ 
sor.  He  came  to  meet  them  in  a  meadow  named 
Runnymede,  on  the  bank  of  the  Thames,  and  there 
they  forced  him  to  sign  the  charter,  for  which  all 
Englishmen  are  grateful  to  them. 

But  he  did  not  mean  to  keep  it!  No,  not  he! 
He  had  one  of  his  father’s  fits  of  rage  when  he  got 
back  to  Windsor  Castle  —  he  gnawed  the  sticks 


John ,  Lackland. 


103 


for  rage,  and  swore  he  was  no  king.  Then  he  sent 
for  more  of  the  fierce  soldiers,  who  went  about  in 
bands,  ready  to  be  hired,  and  prepared  to  take  ven¬ 
geance  on  the  barons.  They  found  themselves  not 
strong  enough  to  make  head  against  him ;  so  they 
invited  Louis,  the  son  of  Philip  of  France  and  hus¬ 
band  of  John’s  niece,  to  come  and  be  their  king. 
He  came,  and  was  received  in  London,  while  John 
and  his  bands  of  soldiers  were  roaming  about  the 
eastern  counties,  wasting  and  burning  everywhere 
till  they  came  to  the  Wash  —  that  curious  bay  be¬ 
tween  Lincolnshire  and  Norfolk,  where  so  many 
rivers  run  into  the  sea.  There  is  a  safe  way  across 
the  sands  in  this  bay  when  the  tide  is  low,  but 
when  it  is  coming  in  and  meets  the  rivers,  the 
waters  rise  suddenly  into  a  flood.  So  it  happened 
to  King  John  ;  he  did  get  out  himself,  but  all  the 
carts  with  his  goods  and  treasures  were  lost,  and 
many  of  his  men.  He  was  full  of  rage  and  grief, 
but  he  went  on  to  the  abbey  where  he  meant  to 
steep.  He  supped  on  peaches  and  new  ale,  and 
soon  after  became  very  ill.  He  died  in  a  few  days, 
a  miserable,  disgraced  man,  with  half  his  people 
fighting  against  him  and  London  in  the  hands  of 
his  worst  enemy. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


HENRY  III..  OF  WINCHESTER. 


A.D.  1210 — 1272. 


TV7"  YNG  John  left  two  little  sons,  Henry  ami 
Richard,  nine  and  seven  years  old,  and  all 
the  English  barons  felt  that  they  would  rather  have 
Henry  as  their  king  than  the  French  Louis,  whom 
they  had  only  called  in  because  John  was  such  a 
wretch.  So  when  little  Henry  had  been  crowned 
104 


Henry  111.,  of  Winchester.  105 

at  Gloucester,  with  his  mother’s  bracelet,  swearing 
to  rule  according  to  Magna  Carta,  and  good  Hubert 
de  Burgh  undertook  to  govern  for  him,  one  baron 
after  another  came  back  to  him.  Louis  was  beaten 
in  a  battle  at  Lincoln  ;  and  when  his  wife  sent  him 
more  troops,  Hubert  de  Burgh  got  ships  together 
and  sunk  many  vessels,  and  drove  the  others  back 
in  the  Straits  of  Dover ;  so  that  Louis  was  forced 
to  go  home  and  leave  England  in  peace. 

Henry  must  have  been  too  young  to  understand 
about  Magna  Carta  when  he 'swore  to  it,  but  it  was 
the  trouble  of  all  his  long  reign  to  get  him  to  observe 
it.  It  was  not  that  he  was  wicked  like  his  father 
— for  he  was  very  religious  and  kind-hearted — but 
he  was  too  good-natured,  and  never  could  say  No 
to  anybody.  Bad  advisers  got  about  him  when  he 
grew  up,  and  persuaded  him  to  let  them  take  good 
Hubert  de  Burgh  and  imprison  him.  He  had 
taken  refuge  in  a  church,  but  they  dragged  him  out 
and  took  him  to  a  blacksmith  to  have  chains  put  on 
his  feet ;  the  smith  however  said  he  would  never 
forge  chains  for  the  man  who  had  saved  his  coun¬ 
try  from  the  French.  De  Burgh  was  afterwards 
set  free,  and  died  in  peace  and  honor. 

Henry  was  a  builder  of  beautiful  churches. 
Westminster  Abbe)-,  as  it  is  now,  was  one.  And 


106  You ny  Folk*  History  of  England. 

lie  was  so  charitable  to  the  poor  that,  when  he  had 
his  children  weighed,  he  gave  their  weight  in  gold 
and  silver  in  alms.  Rut  he  gave  to  everyone  who 
asked,  and  so  always  wanted  money;  and  some¬ 
times  his  men  could  get  nothing  for  the  king  arid 
queen  to  eat,  but  bv  going  and  taking  sheep  and 
poultry  from  the  poor  farmers  around ;  so  that 
things  were  nearly  as  bad  as  under  William  Rufus 
—  because  the  king  was  so  foolishly  good-natured. 
The  Pope  was  always  sending  for  money,  too ;  and 
the  king  tried  to  raise  it  in  ways  that,  according  to 
Magna  Carta,  he  had  sworn  not  to  do.  His  foreign 
friends  told  him  that  if  he  minded  Magna  Carta  he 
would  be  a  poor  creature  —  not  like  a  king  who 
might  do  all  he  pleased ;  and  whenever  he  listened 
to  them  he  broke  the  laws  of  Magna  Carta.  Then, 
when  his  barons  complained  and  frightened  him, 
he  swore  again  to  keep  them  ;  so  that  nobody  could 
trust  him,  and  his  weakness  was  almost  as  bad  for 
the  kingdom  as  John’s  wickedness.  When  they 
could  bear  it  no  longer,  the  barons  all  met  him  at 
the  council  which  was  called  the  Parliament,  from 
a  French  word  meaning  talk.  This  time  they 
came  in  armor,  bringing  all  their  fighting  men,  and 
declared  that  he  had  broken  his  word  so  often  that 
they  should  appoint  some  of  their  own  number  to 


KING  HENRY  AND  HIS  BARONS. 


Henri/  III.,  of  Winchester. 


100 


watch  him,  and  hinder  his  doing  anything  against 
the  laws  he  had  sworn  to  observe,  or  from  getting 
money  from  the  people  without  their  consent.  He 
was  very  angry ;  but  he  was  in  their  power,  and 
had  to  submit  to  swear  that  so  it  should  be  ;  and 
Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester,  who  had 
married  his  sister,  was  appointed  among  the  lords 
who  were  to  keep  watch  over  him.  Henry  could 
not  bear  this;  he  felt  himself  to  be  less  than  evei 
a  king,  and  tried  to  break  loose.  He  had  never 
cared  for  his  promises  ;  but  his  brave  son  Edward, 
who  was  now  grown  up,  cared  a  great  deal :  and 
they  put  the  question  to  Louis,  King  of  France, 
whether  the  king  was  bound  by  the  oath  he  had 
made  to  be  under  Montfort  and  his  council.  This 
Louis  was  son  to  the  one  who  had  been  driven 
back  by  Hubert  de  Burgh.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  men  and  kings  that  ever  lived,  and  he  tried  to 
judge  rightly ;  but  he  scarcely  thought  how  much 
provocation  Henry  had  given,  when  he  said  that 
subjects  had  no  right  to  frighten  their  king,  and  so 
that  Henry  and  Edward  were  not  obliged  to  keep 
the  oath. 

Thereupon  they  got  an  army  together,  and  so 
did  Simon  de  Montfort  and  the  barons ;  and  they 
met  at  a  place  called  Lewes,  in  Sussex.  Edward 


110  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


got  the  advantage  at  first,  and  galloped  away.l  1 
driving  his  enemies  before  him ;  hut  when  he  I 
turned  round  and  came  back,  he  found  that  Simon  1 
de  Montfort  had  beaten  the  rest  of  the  army,  and 
made  Ins  father  and  uncle  Richard  prisoners.  In¬ 
deed  the  barons  threatened  to  cut  off  Richard’s 
head  if  Edward  went  on  fighting  with  them  ;  and 
to  save  his  uncle’s  life,  he  too,  gave  himself  up  to 
them. 

Simon  de  Montfort  now  governed  all  the  king¬ 
dom.  He  still  called  Henry  king,  but  did  not  let 
him  do  anything,  and  watched  him  closely  that  he 
might  not  get  away ;  and  Edward  was  kept  a 
prisoner  —  first  in  one  castle,  then  in  another.  ' 
Simon  was  a  good  and  high-minded  man  himself, 
who  only  wanted  to  do  what  was  best  for  every¬ 
one  ;  but  he  had  a  family  of  proud  and  overbearing 
sons,  who  treated  all  who  came  in  their  way  so  ill, 
that  most  of  the  barons  quarreled  with  them.  One 
of  these  barons  sent  Edward  a  beautiful  horse; 
and  one  day  when  he  was  riding  out  from  Here¬ 
ford  Castle  with  his  keepers,  he  proposed  to  them 
to  ride  races,  while  he  was  to  look  on  and  decide  ] 
which  was  the  swiftest.  Thus  they  all  tired  out  I 
their  horses,  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  that  they  could  i 
hardly  get  them  along,  Edward  spurred  his  own  fresh  j 


Henry  III.,  of  Winchester.  Ill 

lorse,  and  galloped  off  to  meet  the  friends  who 
re  re  waiting  for  him.  All  who  were  discontented 
vith  the  Montforts  joined  him,  and  he  soon  had  a 
arge  army.  He  marched  against  Montfort,  and 
net  him  at  Evesham.  The  poor  old  king  was  in 
dontfort’s  army,  and  in  the  battle  was  thrown 
own,  and  would  have  been  killed  if  he  had  not 
ailed  out  —  “  Save  me,  save  me,  I  am  Henry  of 
Winchester.”  His  son  heard  the  call,  and,  rushing 
o  his  side,  carried  him  to  a  place  of  safety.  His 
rmy  was  much  the  strongest,  and  Montfort  had 
nown  from  the  first  that  there  was  no  hope  for 
im.  “  God  have  merc}r  on  our  souls,  for  our  bodies 
re  Sir  Edward’s,”  he  had  said  ;  and  he  died  brave- 
I  a  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Edward  brought  his  father  back  to  reign  in  all 
onor,  but  he  took  the  whole  management  of  the 
ingdom,  and  soon  set  things  in  order  again  — 
iking  care  that  Magna  Carta  should  be  properly 
>served.  When  everything  was  peaceful  at  home, 
i  set  out  upon  a  Crusade  with  the  good  King  of 
ranee,  and  while  he  was  gone  his  father  died, 
’ter  a  reign  of  fifty-six  years.  There  were  only 
tree  English  Kings  who  reigned  more  than  fifty 
3ars,  and  these  are  easy  to  remember,  as  each  was 
te  third  of  his  name  —  Henry  III.,  Edward  III., 


112  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


and  George  III.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  the 
custom  of  having  Parliaments  was  established 
and  the  king  was  prevented  from  getting  monej 
from  the  people  unless  the  Parliament  granted  it. 
The  Parliament  has,  ever  since,  been  made  up  oi 
great  lords,  who  are  born  to  it :  and,  besides  them, 
of  men  chosen  by  the  people  in  the  counties  and 
towns,  to  speak  and  decide  for  them.  The  clergy 
have  a  meeting  of  their  own  called  Convocation ; 
and  these  three  —  Clergy,  Lords,  and  Commons  — 
are  called  the  Three  Estates  of  the  Realm. 


ft 


CHAPTER  XV. 

EDWARD  I.,  LONGSHANKS. 

A.D.  1272—1307. 

HE  son  of  Henry  III.  returned  from  the  Holy 


A  Land  to  be  one  of  our  noblest,  best,  and 
wisest  kings.  Edward  I.  —  called  Longshanks  in 
a  kind  of  joke,  because  he  was  the  tallest  man  in 
the  Court  —  was  very  grand-looking  and  hand¬ 
some  ;  and  could  leap,  run,  ride,  and  fight  in  his 
heavy  armor  better  than  anyone  else.  He  was 
brave,  just,  and  affectionate;  and  his  sweet  wife, 
Eleanor  of  Castille,  was  warmly  loved  by  him  and 
all  the  nation.  lie  built  as  many  churches  and  was 
as  charitable  as  his  father,  but  he  was  much  more 
careful  to  make  only  good  men  bishops,  and  lie  al¬ 
lowed  no  wasting  or  idling.  He  faithfully  obeyed 
Magna  Carta,  and  made  everyone  else  obey  the 


113 


114 


Yount/  Folks'  Histori /  of  England. 


law  —  indeed  many  good  laws  and  customs  have 
begun  from  his  time.  Order  was  the  great  thing 
he  cared  for,  and  under  him  the  English  greu 
prosperous  and  happy,  when  nobody  was  allowed  tc 
rob  them. 

The  Welsh  were,  however,  terrible  robbers. 
You  remember  that  they  are  the  remains  of  the  old 
Britons,  who  used  to  have  all  Britain.  They  hadw 
never  left  off  thinking  that  they  had  a  right  to  it. 
and  coming  down  out  of  their  mountains  to  burnj 
the  houses  and  steal  the  cattle  of  the  Saxons,  as 
they  still  called  the  English.  Edward  tried  to  make 
friends  with  their  princes  —  Llewellyn  and  David 
—  and  to  make  them  keep  their  people  in  order. 
He  gave  David  lands  in  England,  and  let  Llewel¬ 
lyn  marry  his  cousin,  Eleanor  de  Montfort.  But 
they  broke  their  promises  shamefully,  and  did  such 
savage  things  to  the  English  on  their  borders  that 
he  was  forced  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  and  went  to  war. 
David  was  made  prisoner,  and  put  to  death  as  a 
traitor ;  and  Llewellyn  was  met  by  some  soldiers 
near  the  bridge  of  Builth  and  killed,  without  then- 
knowing  who  he  was.  Edward  had,  in  the  mean¬ 
time,  conquered  most  of  the  country ;  and  he  told 
the  Welsh  chiefs  that,  if  they  would  come  and 
meet  him  at  Caernarvon  Castle,  he  would  give 


Edward  /.,  Longshanks.  117 

them  a  prince  who  had  been  born  in  their  country 
—had  never  spoken  a  word  of  any  language  but 
theirs.  They  all  came,  and  the  king  came  down 
to  them  with  his  own  little  baby  son  in  his  arms, 
who  had  lately  been  born  in  Caernarvon  Castle, 
and,  of  course,  had  never  spoken  any  language  at 
all.  The  Welsh  were  obliged  to  accept  him  ;  and 
he  had  a  Welsh  nurse,  that  the  first  words  he 
spoke  might  be  Welsh.  They  thought  he  would 
have  been  altogether  theirs,  as  he  then  had  an 
elder  brother;  but  in  a  year  or  two  the  oldest 
boy  died ;  and,  ever  since  that  time,  the  eldest  son 
of  the  King  of  England  has  always  been  Prince  of 
Wales. 

There  was  a  plan  for  the  little  Prince  Edward 
of  Caernarvon  being  married  to  a  little  girl,  who 
was  grand-daugliter  to  the  King  of  Scotland,  and 
would  be  Queen  of  Scotland  herself  —  and  this 
would  have  led  to  the  whole  island  being  under 
one  king  —  but,  unfortunately,  the  little  maiden 
died.  It  was  so  hard  to  decide  who  ought  to 
reign,  out  of  all  her  cousins,  that  they  asked  king 
Edward  to  choose  among  them  —  since  everyone 
knew  that  a  great  piece  of  Scotland  belonged  to 
him  as  over-lord,  just  as  liis  own  dukedom  of 
Aquitaine  belonged  to  the  King  of  France  over 


118  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

him ;  ancl  the  Kings  of  Scotland  alwa3's  used  to 
pay  homage  to  those  of  England  for  it. 

Edward  chose  John  Balliol,  the  one  who  had  the 
best  right ;  but  he  made  him  understand  that,  as  over- 
lord,  he  meant  to  see  that  as  good  order  was  kept 
in  Scotland  as  in  England.  Now,  the  English 
kings  had  never  meddled  with  Scottish  affairs  be¬ 
fore,  and  the  Scots  were  furious  at  finding  that  he 
did  so.  They  said  it  was  insulting  them  and  their 
king ;  and  poor  Balliol  did  not  know  what  to  do 
among  them,  but  let  them  defy  Edward  in  his 
name.  This  brought  Edward  and  his  army  to 
Scotland.  The  strong  places  were  taken  and  filled 
with  English  soldiers,  and  Balliol  was  made  pris¬ 
oner,  adjudged  to  have  rebelled  against  his  lord 
and  forfeited  his  kingdom,  and  was  sent  away  to 
France. 

Edward  thought  it  would  be  much  better  for 
the  whole  country  to  join  Scotland  to  England, 
and  rule  it  himself.  And  so,  no  doubt,  it  would 
have  been  ;  but  many  of  the  Scots  were  not  will¬ 
ing,  —  and  in  spite  of  all  the  care  he  could  take, 
the  soldiers  who  guarded  his  castles  often  behaved 
shamefully  to  the  people  round  them.  One  gen¬ 
tleman,  named  William  Wallace,  whose  home  had 
been  broken  up  by  some  soldiers,  fled  to  the 


Edward  /.,  Longslianhs.  > 


119 


woods  and  hills,  and  drew  so  many  Scots  round 
him  that  he  had  quite  an  army.  There  was  a 
great  fight  at  the  Bridge  of  Stirling  ;  the  English 
governors  were  beaten,  and  Wallace  led  his  men 
over  the  Border  into  Northumberland,  where  they 
plundered  and  burnt  wherever  they  went,  in  re¬ 
venge  for  what  had  been  done  in  Scotland. 

Edward  gathered  his  forces  and  came  to  Scot¬ 
land.  The  army  that  Wallace  had  drawn  together 
could  not  stand  before  him,  but  was  defeated  at 
Falkirk,  and  Wallace  had  to  take  to  the  woods. 
Edward  promised  pardon  to  all  who  would  submit, 
—  and  almost  all  did  ;  but  Wallace  still  lurked  in 
the. hills,  till  one  of  his  own  countrymen  betrayed 
him  to  the  English,  when  he  was  sent  to  London, 
and  put  to  death. 

All  seemed  quieted,  and  English  garrisons  — 
that  is,  guarding  soldiers  —  were  in  all  the  Scottish 
towns  and  castles,  when,  suddenly,  Robert  Bruce, 
one  of  the  half  English,  half  Scottish  nobles  be¬ 
tween  whom  Edward  had  judged,  ran  away  from 
the  English  court,  with  his  horse’s  shoes  put  on 
backwards.  The  next  thing  that  was  heard  of  him 
was,  that  he  had  quarreled  with  one  of  his  cousins 
in  the  church  at  Dumfries,  and  stabbed  him  to  the 


120  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


heart,  and  then  had  gone  to  Scone  and  had  been 
crowned  King  of  Scotland. 

Edward  was  bitterly  angry  now.  He  sent  on  an 
army  to  deal  unsparingly  with  the  rising,  and  set 
out  to  follow  with  his  son,  now  grown  to  man’s 
estate.  Crueller  things  than  he  had  ever  allowed 
before  were  done  to  the  places  where  Robert  Bruce 
had  been  acknowledged  as  king,  and  his  friends 
were  hung  as  traitors  wherever  they  were  found; 
but  Bruce  himself  could  not  be  caught.  He  was 
living  a  wild  life  among  the  lakes  and  hills ;  and 
Edward,  who  was  an  old  man  now,  had  been  taken 
so  ill  at  Carlisle,  that  he  could  not  come  on  to  keep 
his  own  strict  rule  among  his  men.  All  the  winter 
he  lay  sick  there  ;  and  in  the  spring  he  heard  that 
Bruce,  whom  he  thought  quite  crushed,  had  sud¬ 
denly  burst  upon  the  English,  defeated  them,  and 
was  gathering  strength  every  day. 

Edward  put  on  his  armor  and  set  out  for  Scot¬ 
land;  but  at  Burgh-on-the-Sands  his  illness  came 
on  again,  and  he  died  there  at  seventy  years  old. 

He  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  under  a 
great  block  of  stone,  and  the  inscription  on  it  only 
sa}rs,  “  Edward  I.,  1308  —  The  Hammer  of  the 
Scots  —  Keep  Treaties.”  His  good  wife,  Queen 
Eleanor,  had  died  many  years  before  him,  and  was 


Edward  I. ,  Longshanks. 


121 


also  buried  at  Westminster.  All  the  way  from 
Grantham,  in  Lincolnshire — where  she  died  —  to 
London,  Edward  set  up  a  beautiful  stone  cross 
wherever  her  body  rested  for  the  night  —  fifteen  of 
them  —  but  only  three  are  left  now. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EDWARD  II.,  OF  CAERNARVON. 
a.d.  1307—1327. 

NLIKE  his  father  in  everything  was  the 


young  Edward,  who  had  just  come  to  man¬ 
hood  when  he  became  king.  Nay,  he  never  did 
come  to  manhood  in  mind,  for  he  was  as  silly  and 
easily  led  as  his  grandfather,  Henry  TIL,  had  been. 
He  had  a  friend  —  a  gay,  handsome,  thoughtless, 
careless  young  man  —  named  Piers  Gaveston,  who 
had  often  led  him  into  mischief.  His  father  had 
banished  this  dangerous  companion,  and  forbidden, 
under  pain  of  his  heaviest  displeasure,  the  two 
young  men  from  ever  meeting  again  ;  hut  the  mo¬ 
ment  the  old  king  ivas  dead,  Edward  turned  back 
from  Scotland,  where  he  Avas  so  much  Avanted,  and 
sent  for  Piers  Gaveston  again.  At  the  same  time 


122 


Edward  II.,  of  Caernarvon. 


123 


his  bride  arrived  —  Isabel,  daughter  to  the  King  of 
France,  a  beautiful  girl  —  and  there  was  a  splendid 
wedding  feast ;  but  the  king  and  Gaveston  were 
both  so  vain  and  conceited,  that  they  cared  more 
about  their  own  beauty  and  fine  dress  than  the 
young  queen's,  and  she  found  herself  quite  neg¬ 
lected.  The  nobles,  too,  were  angered  at  the  airs 
that  Gaveston  gave  himself ;  he  not  only  dressed 
splendidly,  had  a  huge  train  of  servants,  and  man¬ 
aged  the  king-  as  he  pleased,  but  he  was  very 
insolent  to  them,  and  gave  them  nick-names.  He 
called  the  king’s  cousin,  the  Earl  of  Lancaster, 
“the  old  hog;”  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  “Joseph 
the  Jew  ;  ”  and  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  “the  black 
dog.”  Meantime,  the  king  and  he  were  wasting 
the  treasury,  and  doing  harm  of  all  kinds,  till  the 
harons  gathered  together  and  forced  the  king  to 
send  his  favorite  into  banishment.  Gaveston 
went,  but  he  soon  came  back  again  and  joined  the 
king,  who  was  at  last  setting  out  for  Scotland. 

The  nobles,  however,  would  not  endure  his  re¬ 
turn.  They  siezed  him,  brought  him  to  Warwick 
Castle,  and  there  held  a  kind  of  Court,  which 
could  hardly  be  called  of  Justice,  for  they  had  no 
right  at  all  to  sentence  him.  He  spoke  them  fair 
now,  and  begged  hard  for  his  life  ;  but  they  could 


124  Yount )  Folks'  History  of  England. 


not  forget  the  names  lie  had  called  them,  and  he 
was  beheaded  on  Blacklow  Hill. 

Edward  was  frill  of  grief  and  anger  for  the  cruel 
death  of  his  friend ;  hut  he  was  forced  to  keep  it 
out  of  sight,  for  all  the  barons  were  coming  round 
him  for  the  Scottish  war.  While  he  had  been 
wasting  his  time,  Robert  Bruce  had  obtained  every 
strong  place  in  Scotland,  except  Stirling  Castle, 
and  there  the  English  governor  had  promised  to 
yield,  if  succor  did  not  come  from  England  within 
a  year  and  a  day. 

The  year  was  almost  over  when  Edward  came 
into  Scotland  with  a  fine  army  of  English,  Welsh, 
and  Gascons  from  Aquitaine ;  but  Robert  Bruce 
was  a  great  and  able  general,  and  he  was  no  gene¬ 
ral  at  all ;  so  when  the  armies  met  at  Bannock¬ 
burn,  under  the  walls  of  Stirling,  the  English  were 
worse  beaten  than  ever  they  had  been  anywhere 
else,  except  at  Hastings.  Edward  was  obliged  to 
flee  away  to  England,  and  though  Bruce  was  never 
owned  by  the  English  to  be  King  of  Scotland, 
there  he  really  reigned,  having  driven  every 
Englishman  away,  and  taken  all  the  towns  and 
castles.  Indeed,  the  English  had  grown  so  much 
afraid  of  the  Scots,  that  a  hundred  would  flee  at 
sight  of  two. 


Edward  IT..  "t  Caernarvon. 


125 


The  king  comforted,  liimseli  with  a  new  tiiend 
_  Hugh  le  Despencer  —  who,  with  his  old  father, 
had  his  own  way,  just  like  Gaveston.  Again  the 
barons  rose,  and  required  that  they  should  be  ban¬ 
ished.  They  went,  but  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  car¬ 
ried  his  turbulence  too  far,  and,  when  he  heard 
that  the  father  had  come  back,  raised  an  army,  and 
was  even  found  to  have  asked  Robert  Bruce  to 
help  him  against  his  own  king,  this  made  the 
other  barons  so  angry  that  they  joined  the  king 
against  him,  and  he  was  made  prisoner  and  put  to 
death  for  making  war  on  the  king,  and  making 
friends  with  the  enemies  of  the  country. 

Edward  had  his  Le  Despencers  back  again,  and 
very  discontented  the  sight  made  the  whole  coun¬ 
try  _  and  especially  the  queen,  whom  he  had  al¬ 
ways  neglected,  though  she  now  had  four  children. 
He  had  never  tried  to  gain  her  love,  and  she  hated 
him  more  and  more.  There  was  some  danger  of  a 
quarrel  with  her  brother,  the  King  of  1  ranee,  and 
she  offered  to  go  with  her  son  Edward,  now  about 
fourteen,  and  settle  it.  But  this  was  only  an 
excuse.  She  went  about  to  the  princes  abroad, 
telling  them  how  ill  she  was  used  by  her  husband, 
and  asking  for  help.  A  good  many  knights  be¬ 
lieved  and  pitied  her,  and  came  with  her  to  Eng- 


12H  Yount/  Folk -s'  History  of  England. 


land  to  help.  All  the  English  who  hated  the  he  I 
Despencers  joined  her,  and  she  led  the  young  ] 
prince  against  his  father.  Edward  and  Ids  friends 
were  hunted  across  into  Wales ;  but  they  were  i 
tracked  out  one  1>}'  one,  and  the  Despencers  were  l 
put  to  a  cruel  death,  though  Edward  gave  himself 
up  in  hopes  of  saving  them. 

The  queen  and  her  friends  made  him  own  that  ; 
he  did  not  deserve  to  reign,  and  would  give  up  the 
crown  to  his  son.  Then  they  kept  him  in  prison,  j 
taking  him  from  one  castle  to  another,  in  great 
misery.  The  rude  soldiers  of  his  guard  mocked 
him  and  crowned  him  with  hay,  and  gave  him  dirty 
ditch  water  to  shave  with ;  and  when  they  found 
he  was  too  strong  and  healthy  to  die  only  of  bad 
food  and  damp  lodging,  they  murdered  him  one 
night  in  Berkeley  Castle.  He  lies  buried  in 
Gloucester  Cathedral,  not  far  from  that  other  fool¬ 
ish  and  unfortunate  prince,  Robert  of  Normandy.  \ 
He  had  reigned  twenty  years,  and  was  dethroned 
in  1327. 

The  queen  then  wanted  to  get  rid  of  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Kent,  the  poor  king's  youngest  brother. 
So  a  report  was  spread  that  Edward  was  alive,  and 
Edmund  was  allowed  to  peep  into  a  dark  prison 
room,  where  he  saw  a  man  who  he  thought  was  his 


EDWARD  II.  AND  II IS  JAILERS. 


Edward  //.,  of  Caernarvon.  12y 

brother.  He  tried  to  stir  up  friends  to  set  the 
king  free  ;  but  this  was  called  rebelling,  and  he  was 
taken  and  beheaded  at  Winchester  by  a  criminal 
condemned  to  die,  for  it  was  such  a  wicked  sentence 
that  nobody  else  could  be  found  to  carry  it  out. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


EDWARD  111 


a.d.  1327—137 


FOR  about  three  years,  the  cruel  Queen  Isabel 
and  her  friends  managed  all  the  country  ;  but 
as  soon  as  her  son  —  Edward  III.,  who  had  been 
crowned  instead  of  his  father  —  understood  how 
wicked  she  had  been,  and  was  strong  enough  to 
deal  with  her  party,  he  made  them  prisoners,  put 


130 


Edward  III. 


131 


the  worst  of  them  to  death,  and  kept  the  queen 
shut  up  iu  a  castle  as  long  as  she  lived.  He  had  a 
very  good  queen  of  his  own,  named  Philippa,  who 
brought  cloth-workers  over  from  her  own  country, 
Hainault  (now  part  of  Belgium),  to  teach  the  En¬ 
glish  their  trade,  and  thus  began  to  render  England 
the  chief  country  in  the  world  for  wool  and  cloth. 

Queen  Isabel,  Edward's  mother,  had,  you  remem¬ 
ber,  been  daughter  of  the  King  of  France.  All  her 
three  brothers  died  without  leaving  a  son,  and  their 
cousin,  whose  name  was  Philip,  began  to  reign  in 
their  stead.  Edward,  however,  fancied  that  the 
crown  of  France  properly  belonged  to  him,  in  right 
of  his  mother ;  but  he  did  not  stir  about  it  at  once, 
and,  perhaps,  never  would  have  done  so  at  all,  but 
for  two  things.  One  was,  that  the  King  of  h  ranee, 
Philip  VI.,  had  been  so  foolish  as  to  fancy  that  one 
of  his  lords,  named  Robert  of  Artois,  had  been 
bewitching  him  —  by  sticking  pins  into  a  wax 
figure  and  roasting  it  before  a  fire.  So  this  Robert 
was  driven  out  of  France  and,  coming  to  England, 
stirred  Edward  up  to  go  and  overthrow  Philip. 
The  other  was,  that  the  English  barons  had  grown 
so  restless  and  troublesome,  that  they  would  not 
stay  peacefully  at  home  and  mind  their  own 
estates ;  —  but  if  they  had  not  wars  abroad,  they 


132  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

always  gave  the  king  trouble  at  home  ;  and  Edward 
liked  better  that  they  should  fight  for  him  than 
against  him.  So  he  called  himself  King  of  France 
and  England,  and  began  a  war  which  lasted  —  with 
short  spaces  of  quiet  —  for  full  one  hundred  years, 
and  only  ended  in  the  time  of  the  great  grand¬ 
children  of  the  men  who  entered  upon  it.  There 
was  one  great  sea-fight  riff  Sluvs,  when  the  king  sat 
in  his  ship,  in  a  black  velvet  dress,  and  gained  a 
great  victory ;  but  it  was  a  good  while  before  there 
was  an}’  great  battle  by  land  —  so  long,  that  the 
king's  eldest  son,  Edward  Prince  of  Wales,  was 
sixteen  years  old.  He  is  generally  called  the  Black 
Prince  —  no  one  quite  knows  why,  for  his  hair,  like 
that  of  all  these  old  English  kings,  was  quite  light, 
and  his  eyes  were  blue.  He  was  such  a  spirited 
young  soldier,  that  when  the  French  army  under 
King  Philip  came  in  sight  of  the  English  one,  near 
the  village  of  Crecy,  King  Edward  said  he  should 
have  the  honor  of  the  day,  and  stood  under  a  wind¬ 
mill  on  a  hill  watching  the  fight,  while  the  prince  led 
the  English  army.  He  gained  a  very  great  victory, 
and  in  the  evening  came  and  knelt  before  his  father, 
saying  the  praise  was  not  his  own  but  the  king’s, 
who  had  ordered  all  so  wisely.  Afterwards,  while 
Philip  had  fled  away,  Edward  besieged  Calais,  the 


QUEEN  PHIMPPA  ON  HER  KNEES  BEFORE  THE  KING. 

V, 


Edward  III. 


133 


town  just  opposite  to  Dover.  The  inhabitants 
were  very  brave,  and  held  out  for  a  long  time ; 
and  while  Edward  was  absent,  the  Scots  under 
David,  the  son  of  Robert  Bruce,  came  over  the 
Border,  and  began  to  burn  and  plunder  in  North¬ 
umberland.  However,  Philippa  could  be  brave  in 
time  of  need.  She  did  not  send  for  her  husband, 
but  called  an  army  together,  and  the  Scots  were  so 
well  beaten  at  Neville’s  Cross,  that  their  king, 
David  himself,  was  obliged  to  give  himself  up  to  an 
English  squire..  The  man  would  not  let  the  queen 
have  his  prisoner,  but  rode  day  and  night  to 
Dover,  and  then  crossed  to  Calais  to  tell  the  king, 
who  bade  him  put  King  David  into  Queen 
Philippa’s  keeping.  She  came  herself  to  the  camp, 
just  as  the  brave  men  of  Calais  had  been  starved 
out ;  and  Edward  had  said  he  would  only  consent 
not  to  burn  the  town  down,  if  six  of  the  chief 
townsmen  would  bring  him  the  keys  of  the  gates, 
kneeling,  with  sackcloth  on,  and  halters  round 
their  necks,  ready  to  be  hung.  Queen  Philippa 
wept  when  she  saw  them,  and  begged  that  they 
might  be  spared;  and  when  the  king  granted  them 
to  her  she  had  them  led  away,  and  gave  each  a 
good  dinner  and  a  fresh  suit  of  clothes.  The  king, 
however,  turned  all  the  French  people  out  of 


134  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

Calais,  and  filled  it  with  English,  and  it  remained 
quite  an  English  town  for  more  than  200  years. 

King  Philip  VI.  of  France  died,  and  his  son 
John  became  King,  while  still  the  war  went  on. 
The  Black  Prince  and  John  had  a  terrible  battle 
at  a  place  called  Poitiers,  and  the  English  gained 
another  great  victory.  King  John  and  one  of  his 
sons  were  made  prisoners,  but  when  they  were 
brought  to  the  tent  where  the  Black  Prince  was  to 
sup,  he  made  them  sit  down  at  the  table  before 
him,  and  waited  on  them  as  if  they  had  been  his 
guests  instead  of  his  prisoners.  He  did  all  he  could 
to  prevent  captivity  being  a  pain  to  them ;  and 
when  he  brought  them  to  London,  he  gave  John  a 
tall  white  horse  to  ride,  and  only  rode  a  small  pony 
himself  by  his  side.  There  were  two  kings  prison¬ 
ers  in  the  Tower  of  London  at  once,  and  they  were 
treated  as  if  they  were  visitors  and  friends.  John 
was  allowed  to  go  home,  provided  he  would  pay  a 
ransom  by  degrees,  as  he  could  get  the  money 
together;  and,  in  the  meantime,  his  two  elder  sons 
■were  to  be  kept  at  Calais  in  his  stead.  But  the}' 
would  not  stay  at  Calais,  and  King  John  could  not 
obtain  the  sum  for  his  ransom ;  so,  rather  than 
cheat  King  Edward,  he  went  back  to  his  prison  in 
England  again.  He  died  soon  after;  and  his  son 


thk  black  prince  serving  the  french  king. 


Edward  III. 


137 


Charles  was  a  cleverer  and  wiser  man,  who  knew 
it  was  better  not  to  fight  battles  with  the  English, 
but  made  a  truce,  or  short  peace. 

Prince  Edward  governed  that  part  of  the  south 
of  France  that  belonged  to  his  father;  but  he  went 
on  a  foolish  expedition  into  Spain,  to  help  a  very 
bad  king  whom  his  subjects  had  driven  out,  and 
there  caught  an  illness  from  which  he  never  quite 
recovered.  While  he  "was  ill  King  Charles  began 
the  war  again ;  and,  though  there  was  no  battle,  he 
tormented  the  English,  and  took  the  castles  and 
towns  they  held.  The  Black  Prince  tried  to  fight, 
but  he  was  too  weak  and  ill  to  do  much,  and  was 
obliged  to  go  home,  and  leave  the  government  to 
his  brother  John,  Duke  of  Lancaster.  He  lived 
about  six  years  after  lie  came  home,  and  then  died, 
to  the  great  sorrow  of  everyone.  His  father,  King 
Edward,  was  now  too  old  and  feeble  to  attend  to 
the  affairs  of  the  country.  Queen  Philippa  was 
dead  too,  and  as  no  one  took  proper  care  of  the 
poor  old  king,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  bad  ser¬ 
vants,  who  made  themselves  rich  and  neglected 
him.  When,  at  length,  he  lay  dying,  they  stole 
the  ring  off  his  finger  before  he  had  breathed  his 
last,  and  left  him  all  alone,  with  the  doors  open,  till 


138  Young  Folk s'  History  of  England. 


a  priest  came  by,  and  stayed  and  prayed  by  him  till 
his  last  moment.  He  had  reigned  exactly  fifty 
years.  You  had  better  learn  and  remember  the 
names  of  his  sons,  as  you  will  hear  more  about 
some  of  them.  They  were  Edward,  Lionel,  John,  i 
Edmund,  and  Thomas.  Edward  was  Prince  of 
Wales;  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence;  John,  Duke  of 

Lancaster;  Edmund,  Duke  of  York;  and  Thomas,  j 

’  I 

Duke  of  Cloucester.  Edward  and  Lionel  both  ' 
died  before  their  father.  Edward  had  left  a  son  I 
named  Richard ;  Lionel  had  left  a  daughter  named 
Philippa. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

RICHARD  II. 

A.d.  1377 — 1399. 

THESE  were  not  very  good  times  in  England. 

The  new  king,  Richard,  was  only  eleven 
years  old,  and  his  three  uncles  did  not  care  much 
for  his  good  or  the  good  of  the  nation.  There  was 
not  much  fighting  going  on  in  France,  but  for  the 
little  there  was  a  great  deal  of  money  was  wanting, 
and  the  great  lords  were  apt  to  be  very  hard  upon 
the  poor  people  on  their  estates.  They  would  not 
let  them  be  taught  to  read;  and  if  a  poor  man  who 
belonged  to  an  estate  went  away  to  a  town,  his  lord 
could  have  him  brought  back  to  his  old  home. 
Any  tax,  too,  fell  more  heavily  on  the  poor  than 
the  rich.  One  tax,  especially,  called  the  poll  tax, 
which  was  made  when  Richard  was  sixteen,  vexed 
139 


140  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

them  greatly.  Everyone  above  fifteen  years  old 
had  to  pay  fourpence,  and  the  collectors  were  often 
very  rude  and  insolent.  A  man  named  Wat  Tyler, 
in  Kent,  was  so  angry  with  a  rude  collector  as  to 
strike  him  dead.  All  the  villagers  came  together  with 
sticks,  and  scythes,  and  flails;  and  Wat  Tyler  told 
them  they  would  all  go  to  London,  and  tell  the 
king  how  his  poor  commons  were  treated.  More 
people  and  more  joined  them  on  the  way,  and  an 
immense  multitude  of  wild  looking  men  came 
pouring  into  London,  where  the  Lord  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  could  do 
nothing  to  stop  them.  They  did  not  do  much  harm 
then ;  they  lay  on  the  grass  all  night  round  the 
Tower,  and  said  they  wanted  to  speak  to  the  king. 
In  the  morning  he  came  down  to  his  barge,  and 
meant  to  have  spoken  to  them ;  but  his  people, 
seeing  such  a  host  of  wild  men,  took  fright,  and 
carried  him  back  again.  He  went  out  again  the 
next  day  on  horseback ;  but  while  he  was  speaking 
to  some  of  them,  the  worst  of  them  broke  into  the 
Tower,  where  they  seized  Archbishop  Simon  of 
Canterbury,  and  fancying  he  was  one  of  the  king’s 
bad  advisers,  the}'  cut  off  his  head.  Richard  had 
to  sleep  in  the  house  called  the  Royal  Wardrobe 
that  night,  but  he  went  out  again  on  horseback 
among  the  mob,  and  began  trying  to  understand 


Richard  II. 


143 


what  they  wanted.  Wat  Tyler,  while  talking, 
grew  violent,  forgot  to  whom  he  was  speaking,  and 
laid  his  hand  on  the  king’s  bridle,  as  if  to  threaten 
or  take  him  prisoner.  Upon  this,  the  Lord  Mayor, 
with  his  mace  —  the  large  crowned  staff  that  is 
carried  before  him  —  dealt  the  man  such  a  blow 
that  he  fell  from  his  horse,  and  an  attendant  thrust 
him  through  with  a  sword.  The  people  wavered, 
md  seemed  not  to  know  what  to  do :  and  the 
young  king,  with  great  readiness,  rode  forward 
md  said  —  “Good  fellows,  have  you  lost  your 
eader  ?  This  fellow  was  but  a  traitor,  I  am  your 
dug,  and  will  be  your  captain  and  guide.”  Then 
le  rode  at  their  head  out  into  the  fields,  and  the 
gentlemen,  who  had  mustered  their  men  by  this 
ime,  were  able  to  get  between  them  and  the  city, 
"he  people  of  each  county  were  desired  to  state 
heir  grievances ;  the  king  engaged  to  do  what  he 
ould  for  them,  and  they  went  home. 

Richard  seems  to  have  really  wished  to  take 
way  some  of  the  laws  that  were  so  hard  upon  them, 
ut  his  lords  would  not  let  him,  and  he  had  as  yet 
cry  little  power  —  being  only  a  boy  —  and  by  the 
me  he  grew  up  his  head  was  full  of  vanity  and 
'lly.  He  was  very  handsome,  and  he  cared  more 
r  fine  clothes  and  amusements  than  for  business ; 


144  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

and  his  youngest  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
did  all  he  could  to  keep  him  back,  and  hinder  him 
from  taking  his  affairs  into  his  own  hands.  Not 
till  he  was  twenty-four  did  Richard  begin  to  govern 
for  himself ;  and  then  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  was 
always  grumbling  and  setting  the  people  to  grum¬ 
ble,  because  the  king  choose  to  have  peace  with 
France.  Duke  Thomas  used  to  lament  over  the 
glories  of  the  battles  of  Edward  III.,  and  tell  the 
people  they  had  taxes  to  pay  to  keep  the  king  in 
ermine  robes,  and  rings,  and  jewels,  and  to  let  him 
give  feasts  and  tilting  matches  —  when  the  knights, 
in  beautiful,  gorgeous  armor,  rode  against  one 
another  in  sham  fight,  and  the  king  and  ladies 
looked  on  and  gave  the  prize. 

Now,  Richard  knew  very  well  that  all  this  did 
not  cost  half  so  much  as  his  grandfather’s  wars,  and 
he  said  it  did  not  signify  to  the  people  what  he 
wore,  or  how  he  amused  himself,  as  long  as  he  did 
not  tax  them  and  take  their  lambs  and  sheaves  to 
pay  for  it.  But  the  people  would  not  believe  him. 
and  Gloucester  was  always  stirring  them  up  against 
him,  and  interfering  with  him  in  council.  At  last. 
Richard  went  as  if  on  a  visit'  to  his  uncle  at  Pleshv 
Castle,  and  there,  in  his  own  presence,  caused  him 
to  be  seized  and  sent  off  to  Calais.  In  a  few  days’ 


Edward  IV. 


179 


Edward  longed  to  strike  a  blow  for  his  inheritance, 
and  they  had  friends  in  Wales  whom  they  hoped 
to  meet.  So  they  made  their  way  into  Glouces¬ 
tershire  ;  but  there  King  Edward,  with  both  bis 
brothers,  came  down  upon  them  at  Tewkesbury, 
and  there  their  army  was  routed,  and  the  young 
prince  taken  and  killed — some  say  by  the  king  him¬ 
self  and  his  brothers.  Poor  broken  hearted  Queen 
Margaret  was  made  prisoner  too,  and  carried  to  the 
Tower,  where  she  arrived  a  day  or  two  after  the 
meek  and  crazed  captive,  Henry  VI.,  had  been 
slain,  that  there  might  be  no  more  risings  in  his 
name.  And  so  ended  the  long  war  of  York  and 
Lancaster  —  though  not  in  peace  or  joy  to  the 
savage,  faithless  family  who  had  conquered. 

Edward  was  merry  and  good-natured  when  not 
angered,  and  had  quite  sense  and  ability  enough  to 
have  been  a  very  good  king,  if  he  had  not  been 
lazy,  selfish,  and  full  of  vices.  He  actually  set 
out  to  conquer  France,  and  then  let  himself  be  per¬ 
suaded  over  and  paid  off  by  the  cunning  King  of 
France,  and  went  home  again,  a  laughing-stock  to 
everybody.  The  two  kings  had  an  interview  on  a 
bridge  over  the  River  Somme  in  France,  where 
they  talked  through  a  kind  of  fence,  each  being  too 


180  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

suspicious  of  the  other  to  meet,  without  such  a 
barrier  between  them.  As  to  George,  the  king 
had  never  trusted  him  since  his  shameful  behavior 
when  Warwick  rebelled;  besides,  he  was  always 
abusing  the  queen’s  relations,  and  Richard  was 
always  telling  the  king  of  all  the  bad  and  foolish 
things  he  did  or  said.  At  last  there  was  a  great 
outbreak  of  anger,  and  the  king  ordered  the  Duke 
of  Clarence  to  be  imprisoned  in  the  Towner;  aud 
there,  before  long,  he  too  was  killed.  The  saying 
was  that  he  was  drowned  in  a  butt  of  Malmsey 
wine,  but  this  is  not  at  all  likely  to  be  true.  He 
left  two  little  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl. 

So  much  cruel  slaughter  had  taken  place,  that 
most  of  the  noble  families  in  England  had  lost 
many  sons,  and  a  great  deal  of  their  wealth,  and 
none  of  them  ever  became  again  so  mighty  as  the 
king-maker  had  been.  His  daughter,  Anne,  the 
wife  of  poor  Edward  of  Lancaster,  was  found  by 
Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  hidden  as  a  cook- 
maid  in  London,  and  she  was  persuaded  to  marry 
him  —  as,  indeed,  she  had  always  been  'utended 
for  him.  He  was  a  little,  thin,  slight  man,  with 
one  shoulder  higher  than  the  other,  and  keen,  cun¬ 
ning  dark  eyes  ;  and  as  the  king  was  very  tall,  with 


Edward  IV. 


181 


a  handsome,  blue-eyed,  fair  face,  people  laughed 
at  the  contrast,  called  Gloucester  Richard  Crook¬ 
back  and  were  very  much  afraid  of  him. 

It  was  in  this  reign  that  books  began  to  be 
printed  in  England  instead  of  written.  Printing 
had  been  found  out  in  Germany  a  little  before,  and 
books  had  been  shown  to  Henry  VI.,  but  the 
troubles  of  his  time  kept  him  from  attending  to 
them.  Now,  however,  Edward’s  sister,  the  Duchess 
of  Burgundy,  much  encouraged  a  printer  named 
Caxton,  whose  books  she  sent  her  brother,  and 
other  presses  were  set  up  in  London.  Another 
great  change  had  now  come  in.  Long  ago,  in  the 
time  of  Henry  III.,  a  monk  named  Roger  Bacon 
had  made  gunpowder ;  but  nobody  used  it  much 
until,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  it  was  found  out 
how  cannon  might  be  fired  with  it ;  and  some  say 
it  was  first  used  in  the  battle  of  Crecy.  But  it  was 
not  till  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  that  smaller  guns, 
such  as  each  soldier  could  carry  one  of  for  himself, 
were  invented  —  harquebuses,  as  they  were  called ; 
—  and  after  this  the  whole  way  of  fighting  was 
gradually  altered.  Printing  and  gunpowder  both 
made  very  great  changes  in  everything,  though  not 
all  at  once. 


182  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 

King  Edward  did  not  live  to  see  the  changes. 
He  had  hurt  his  health  with  his  revellings  and 
amusements,  and  died  quite  in  middle  age,  in  the 
year  1488:  seeing,  perhaps,  at  last,  how  much 
better  a  king  he  might  have  been. 


7 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


EDWARD  V. 


A.  i).  1483. 


EDW ARD  IV.  left  several  daughters  and  two 
sons — Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was 
fourteen  years  old,  and  Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
who  was  eleven.  Edward  was  at  Ludlow  Castle — 
where  the  princes  of  Wales  were  always  brought 
up — with  his  mother’s  brother,  Lord  Rivers;  his 
half-brother,  Richard  Grey ;  and  other  gentlemen. 

When  the  tidings  came  of  his  father’s  death, 
hey  set  out  to  bring  him  to  London  to  be  crowned 
dng. 

But,  in  the  meantime,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester 
md  several  of  the  noblemen,  especially  the  Duke 
>f  Buckingham,  agreed  that  it  was  unbearable  that 
he  queen  and  her  brothers  should  go  on  having  all 
ho  power,  as  they  had  done  in  Edward’s  time. 


184  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

Till  the  king  was  old  enough  to  govern,  his  father's 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  was  the  proper 
person  to  rule  for  him,  and  they  would  soon  put  an 
end  to  the  Woodvilles.  The  long  wars  had  made 
everybody  cruel  and  regardless  of  the  laws,  so  that 
no  one  made  much  objection  when  Gloucester  and 
Buckingham  met  the  king  and  took  him  from  his 
uncle  and  half-brother,  who  were  sent  off  to  Ponte¬ 
fract  Castle,  and  in  a  short  time  their  heads  were 
cut  off  there.  Another  of  the  late  king’s  friends 
was  Lord  Hastings ;  and  as  he  sat  at  the  council 
table  in  the  Tower  of  London,  with  the  other 
lords,  Richard  came  in,  and  showing  his  own  lean, 
shrunken  arm,  declared  that  Lord  Hastings  had 
bewitched  him,  and  made  it  so.  The  other  lords 
began  to  say  that  if  he  had  done  so  it  was  horrible. 
But  Richard  would  listen  to  no  ifs,  and  said  he 
would  not  dine  till  Hastings’s  head  was  off.  And 
his  cruel  word  was  done.  ' 

The  queen  saw  that  harm  was  intended,  and 
went  with  all  her  other  children  to  her  former 
refuge  in  the  sanctuary  at  Westminster;  nor  would 
she  leave  it  when  her  son  Edward  rode  in  state 
into  London  and  was  taken  to  the  Tower,  which 
was  then  a  palace  as  well  as  a  prison. 

The  Duke  of  Gloucester  and  the  Council  said 


Richard  II 


145 


time  Thomas,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  was  dead;  and 
to  this  day  nobody  knows  whether  his  grief  and 
rage  brought  on  a  fit,  or  if  he  was  put  to  death. 
It  is  certain,  at  least,  that  Richard's  other  two 
uncles  do  not  seem  to  have  treated  the  king  as  if 
he  had  been  to  blame.  The  elder  of  these  uncles, 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  was  called  John  of  Gaunt 
because  he  had  been  born  at  Ghent,  a  town  in 
Flanders.  He  was  becoming  an  old  man,  and 
only  tried  to  help  the  king  and  keep  things  quiet ; 
but  Henry,  his  eldest  son,  was  a  fine  high-spirited 
young  man  —  a  favorite  with  everybody,  and  was 
always  putting  himself  forward  —  and  the  king  was 
very  much  afraid  of  him. 

One  day,  when  Parliament  met,  the  king  stood 
up,  and  commanded  Henry  of  Lancaster  to  tell  all 
Lose  present  what  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  had  said 
vhen  they  were  riding  together.  Henry  gave  in  a 
■vritten  paper,  saying  that  the  duke  had  told  him 
hat  they  should  all  be  ruined,  like  the  Duke  of 
Houcester,  and  that  the  king  would  find  some  way 
o  destroy  them.  Norfolk  angrily  sprang  up,  and 
eclared  he  had  said  no  such  thing.  In  those 
ays,  when  no  one  could  tell  which  spoke  truth, 
lie  two  parties  often  would  offer  to  fight,  and  it 


146  Young  Folks’’  History  of  England. 

was  believed  that  God  would  show  the  right,  by- 
giving  the  victory  to  the  sincere  one.  So  Henry  and 
Norfolk  were  to  fight;  but  just  as  they  were 
mounted  on  their  horses,  with  their  lances  in  their 
hands,  the  king  threw  down  his  staff  before  them, 
stopped  the  combat,  and  sentenced  Norfolk  to  be 
banished  from  England  for  life,  and  Henry  for  ten 
years. 

Not  long  after  Henry  had  gone,  his  old  father  — 
John  of  Gaunt — died,  and  the  king  kept  all  his 
great  dukedom  of  Lancaster.  Henry  would  not 
bear  this,  and  knew  that  many  people  at  home 
thought  it  very  unfair  ;  so  he  came  to  England,  and 
as  soon  as  he  landed  at  Ravenspur  in  Yorkshire, 
people  flocked  to  him  so  eagerly,  that  he  began  to 
think  he  could  do  more  than  make  himself  duke  of 
Lancaster.  King  Richard  was  in  Ireland,  where 
his  cousin,  the  governor  —  Roger  Mortimer  —  had 
been  killed  by  the  wild  Irish.  He  came  home  in 
haste  on  hearing  of  Henry's  arrival,  but  everybody 
turned  against  him :  and  the  Earl  of  Northumber¬ 
land,  whom  he  had  chiefly  trusted,  made  him 
prisoner  and  carried  him  to  Henry.  He  was  taken 
to  London,  and  there  set  before  Parliament,  to 
confess  that  he  had  ruled  so  ill  that  he  was 


ItieJiard  II. 


147 


unworthy  to  reign,  and  gave  up  the  crown  to  his 
dear  cousin  Henry  of  Lancaster,  in  the  year  1399. 

Then  lie  was  sent  away  to  Pontefract  Castle,  and 
what  happened  to  him  there  nobody  knows,  but  he 
never  came  out  of  it  alive. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


HENRY  IV. 


a.d.  1399—1413. 


HE  English  people  had  often  chosen  their 


J-  king  out  of  the  royal  family  in  old  times, 
but  from  John  to  Richard  II.,  he  had  always  been 
the  son  and  heir  of  the  last  king.  Now,  though 
poor  Richard  had  no  child,  Henry  of  Lancaster  was 
not  the  next  of  kin  to  him,  for  Lionel,  Duke  of 
Clarence,  had  come  between  the  Black  Prince  and 
John  of  Gaunt;  and  his  great  grandson,  Edmund 
Mortimer,  was  thought  by  many  to  have  a  better 
right  to  be  king  than  Henry.  Besides,  people  did 
not  know  whether  Richard  was  alive,  and  they 
thought  him  hardly  used,  and  wanted  to  set  him 
free.  So  Henry  had  a  very  uneasy  time.  Every¬ 
one  had  been  fond  of  him  when  he  was  a  bright, 


Henry  IV 


149 


friendly,  free-spoken  noble,  and  he  had  thought 
that  he  would  be  a  good  king  and  much  loved  ;  but 
he  had  gained  the  crown  in  an  evil  way,  and  it 
never  gave  him  any  peace  or  joy.  The  Welsh, 
who  always  had  loved  Richard,  took  up  arms  for 
him,  and  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who  had  be¬ 
trayed  Richard,  expected  a  great  deal  too  much 
from  Henry.  The  earl  had  a  brave  son  —  Henry 
Percy  —  who  was  so  fiery  and  eager  that  he  was 
commonly  called  Hotspur.  He  was  sent  to  fight 
with  the  Welsh :  and  with  the  king’s  son,  Henry, 
Prince  of  Wales  —  a  brave  boy  of  fifteen  or  sixteen 
—  under  his  charge,  to  teach  him  the  art  of  war ; 
and  they  used  to  climb  the  mountains  and  sleep  in 
tents  together  as  good  friends. 

But  the  Scots  made  an  attack  on  England. 
Henry  Percy  went  north  to  fight  with  them,  and 
beat-them  in  a  great  battle,  making  many  prisoners. 
The  King  sent  to  ask  to  have  the  prisoners  sent  to 
London,  and  this  made  the  proud  Percy  so  angry 
that  he  gave  up  the  cause  of  King  Henry,  and 
went  off  to  Wales,  taking  his  prisoners  with  him; 
and  there  —  being  by  this  time  nearly  sure  that 
poor  Richard  must  be  dead  —  he  joined  the  Welsh 
in  choosing,  as  the  only  right  king  of  England, 
young  Edmund  Mortimer.  Henry  IY.  and  hi? 


150  Young  Folks  Ilistorg  of  England. 

sons  gathered  an  army  easily  —  for  the  Welsh  were 
so  savage  and  cruel,  that  the  English  were  sure  to 
fight  against  them  if  they  broke  into  England. 
The  battle  was  fought  near  Shrewsbury.  It  was  a 
very  fierce  one,  and  in  it  Hotspur  was  killed,  the 
Welsh  put  to  flight,  and  the  Prince  of  Wales 
fought  so  well  that  everyone  saw  he  was  likely  to 
be  a  brave,  warlike  king,  like  Edward  I.  or 
Edward  III. 

The  troubles  were  not  over,  however,  for  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland  himself,  and  Archbishop 
Scrope  of  York,  took  up  arms  against  the  king; 
but  they  were  put  down  without  a  battle.  The 
Earl  fled  and  hid  himself,  but  the  archbishop  was 
taken  and  beheaded  —  the  first  bishop  whom  a 
king  of  England  had  ever  put  to  death.  The 
Welsh  went  on  plundering  and  doing  harm,  and 
Prince  Henry  had  to  be  constantly  on  the  watch 
against  them  ;  and,  in  fact,  there  never  was  a  reign 
so  full  of  plots  and  conspiracies.  The  king  never 
knew  whom  to  trust:  one  friend  after  another 
turned  against  him,  and  he  became  soured  and 
wretched :  he  was  worn  out  with  disappointment 
and  guarding  against  everyone,  and  at  last  he  grew 
even  suspicious  of  his  brave  son  Henry,  because  he 
was  so  bright  and  bold,  and  was  so  much  loved. 


Hen  ry  IV. 


151 


The  prince  was  ordered  home  from  Wales,  and 
obliged  to  live  at  Windsor,  with  nothing  to  do, 
while  his  youngest  brothers  were  put  before  him 
and  trusted  by  their  father  —  one  of  them  even 
sent  to  command  the  army  in  France.  But  hap¬ 
pily  the  four  brothers  —  Henry,  Thomas,  John  and 
Humfrey —  all  loved  each  other  so  well  that 
nothing  could  make  them  jealous  or  at  enmity  with 
one  another.  At  Windsor,  too,  the  king  kept 
young  Edmund  Mortimer  —  whom  the  Welsh  had 
tried  to  make  king,  —  and  also  the  young  Prince 
of  Scotland,  whom  an  English  ship  had  caught  as 
lie  was  sailing  for  France  to  be  educated.  It  was 
very  dishonorable  of  the  king  to  have  taken  him  : 
but  he  was  brought  up  with  the  young  English 
princes,  and  they  all  led  a  happy  life  together. 

There  are  stories  told  of  Henry  —  Prince  Hal,  as 
he  was  called  —  leading  a  wild,  merry  life,  as  a  sort 
#of  madcap ;  playing  at  being  a  robber,  and  break¬ 
ing  into  the  wagons  that  were  bringing  treasure 
for  his  father,  and  then  giving  the  money  back 
again.  Also,  there  is  a  story  that,  when  one  of  his 
friends  was  taken  before  the  Lord  Chief  Justice,  he 
went  and  ordered  him  to  be  released,  and  that 
when  the  justice  refused  he  drew  his  sword,  upon 
which  the  justice  sent  him  to  prison ;  and  he  went 


!■)-  .)  "n ii'/  F< i fie*'  Hist nr;i  of  England . 

quietly,  knowing  it  was  right.  The  king  is  said  to 
have  declared  himself  happy  to  have  a  judge  who 
maintained  the  law  so  well,  and  a  son  who  would 
submit  to  it :  but  there  does  not  seem  to  be  good 
reason  for  believing  the  story ;  and  it  seems  clear 
that  young  Henry,  if  he  was  full  of  fun  and  frolic, 
took  care  never  to  do  anything  really  wrong. 

The  king  was  an  old  man  before  his  time.  He 
was  always  ill,  and  often  had  fits,  and  one  of  these 
came  on  when  he  was  in  Westminster  Abbey.  He 
was  taken  to  the  room  called  the  Jerusalem  cham¬ 
ber.  and  Henry  watched  him  there.  Another  of 
the  stories  is  that  the  king  lay  as  if  he  were  dead, 
and  the  prince  took  the  crown  that  was  by  his  side 
and  carried  it  away.  When  the  king  revived, 
Henry  brought  it  back,  with  many  excuses.  “  Ah, 
fair  son,"  said  the  king,  “  what  right  have  you  to 
the  crown  ?  you  know  your  father  had  none.” 

“  Sir,"  said  Henry,  “  with  your  sword  you  took 
it,  and  with  my  sword  I  will  keep  it.” 

“May  God  have  mercy  on  my  soul,”  said  the 
king. 

Another  story  tells  how  the  prince,  feeling  that 
his  father  doubted  his  loyalty,  presented  himself 
one  day  in  disordered  attire  before  the  king,  and 
kneeling,  offered  him  a  dagger,  and  begged  his 


PRINCE  HENRY  OFFERS  HIS  LIFE  TO  HIS  FATHER. 


Henry  IV. 


155 


father  to  take  his  life,  if  he  could  no  longer  trust 
and  love  him. 

We  cannot  be  quite  certain  about  the  truth  of 
these  conversations,  for  many  people  will  write 
down  stories  they  have  heard,  without  making  sure 
of  them.  One  thing  we  are  certain  of  which  Henry 
told  his  son,  which  seems  less  like  repentance.  It 
was  that,  unless  he  made  war  in  France,  his  lords 
would  never  let  him  be  quiet  on  his  throne  in 
England ;  and  this  young  Henry  was  quite  ready 
to  believe.  There  had  never  been  a  real  peace  be¬ 
tween  France  and  England  since  Edward  III.  had 
begun  the  war  —  only  truces,  which  are  short  rests 
in  the  middle  of  a  great  war  —  and  the  English 
were  eager  to  begin  again ;  for  people  seldom 
thought  then  of  the  misery  that  comes  of  a  great 
war,  but  only  of  the  honor  and  glory  that  were  to 
be  gained,  of  making  prisoners  and  getting  ransoms 
from  them. 

So  Henry  IV.  died,  after  having  made  his  own 
life  very  miserable  by  taking  the  crown  unjustly, 
and,  as  you  will  see,  leaving  a  great  deal  of  harm 
still  to  come  to  the  whole  country,  as  well  as  to 
France. 

He  died  in  the  year  1399.  His  family  is  called 
the  House  of  Lancaster,  because  his  father  had 


156  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

been  Duke  of  Lancaster.  You  will  be  amused  to 
hear  that  Richard  Whittington  really  lived  in  his 
time.  I  cannot  answer  for  his  cat,  but  he  was 
really  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  supplied  the 
wardrobe  of  King  Henry’s  daughter,  when  she 
married  the  King  of  Denmark. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


HENBY  V.,  OF  MONMOUTH. 

.u.  1413—1423. 

HE  young  King  Henry  was  full  of  high,  good 


thoughts.  He  was  most  devout  in  going  to 
hurch,  tried  to  make  good  Bishops,  gave  freely  to 
re  poor,  and  was  so  kindly,  and  hearty,  and  .merry 
1  all  his  words  and  ways,  that  everyone  loved  him. 


till,  he  thought  it  was  his  duty  to  go  and  make 


ar  in  France.  He  had  been  taught  to  believe  the 
ingdom  belonged  to  him,  and  it  was  in  so 
retched  a  state  that  he  thought  he  could  do  it 
rod.  The  poor  king,  Charles  VI.,  was  mad,  and 
id  a  wicked  wife  besides ;  and  his  sons,  and 
ides,  and  cousins  were  always  fighting,  till  the 
freets  of  Paris  were  often  red  with  blood,  and  the 
'hole  country  was  miserable.  Henry  hoped  to  set 
in  order  for  them,  and  gathering  an  army 


158  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

together,  crossed  to  Normandy.  He  called  on  the 
people  to  own  him  as  their  true  king,  and  never  let 
any  harm  he  done  to  them,  for  he  hung  any  soldier 
who  was  caught  stealing,  or  misusing  anyone.  He 
took  the  town  of  Harfleur,  on  the  coast  of 
Normandy,  but  not  till  after  a  long  siege,  when  his 
camp  was  in  so  wet  a  place  that  there  was  much 
illness  among  his  men.  The  store  of  food  was 
nearly  used  up,  and  he  was  obliged  to  march  his 
troops  across  to  Calais,  which  you  know  belonged 
to  England,  to  get  some  more.  But  on  the  way 
the  French  army  came  up  to  meet  him — a  very 
grand,  splendid-looking  army,  commanded  by  the 
king’s  eldest  son  the  dauphin.  Just  as  the  English 
kings’  eldest  son  was  always  Prince  of  Wales,  the' 
French  kings’  eldest  son  was  always  called  Dau¬ 
phin  of  Vienne,  because  Vienne,  the  country  that 
belonged  to  him,  had  a  dolphin  on  its  shield.  The 
French  army  was  very  large  —  quite  twrice  the 
number  of  the  English  —  hut,  though  Henry’s  mer 
were  weary  and  half-starved,  and  many  of  then) 
sick,  they  were  not  afraid,  but  believed  their  kinc 
when  he  told  them  that  there  were  enough  French 
men  to  kill,  enough  to  run  away,  and  enough  t( 
make  prisoners.  At  night,  however,  the  English  hac 
solemn  prayers,  and  made  themselves  ready,  anc 


Henry  V.  of  Monmouth. 


161 


the  king  walked  from  tent  to  tent  to  see  that  each 
man  was  in  his  place ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
French  were  feasting  and  revelling,  and  settling  what 
they  would  do  to  the  English  when  they  had  made 
them  prisoners.  They  were  close  to  a  little  village 
which  the  English  called  Agincourt,  and,  though 
that  is  not  quite  its  right  name,  it  is  what  we  have 
called  the  battle  ever  since.  The  French,  owing 
;o  the  quarrelsome  state  of  the  country,  had  no 
irder  or  obedience  among  them.  Nobody  would 
>bey  any  other ;  and  when  their  own  archers  were 
n  the  way,  the  horsemen  began  cutting  them  down 
is  if  they  were  the  enemy.  Some  fought  bravely, 
iut  it  was  of  little  use  ;  and  by  night  all  the  French 
vere  routed,  and  King  Henry’s  banner  waving  in 
ictory  over  the  field.  He  went  back  to  England 
1  great  glory,  and  all  the  aldermen  of  London 
ame  out  to  meet  him  in  red  gowns  and  gold 
bains,  and  among  them  was  Sir  Richard  Wliit- 
ngton,  the  great  silk  mercer. 

Henry  was  so  modest  that  he  would  not  allow 
le  helmet  he  had  worn  at  Agincou.i,  all  knocked 
jout  with  terrible  blows,  to  be  carried  before  him 
hen  he  rode  into  London,  and  he  went  straight  to 
lurch,  to  give  thanks  to  God  for  his  victory.  He 
ion  went  back  k>  France,  and  went  on  conquering 


162  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

it  till  the  queen  came  to  an  agreement  with  hii 
that  he  should  marry  her  daughter  Catherine,  au 
that,  though  poor,  crazy  Charles  VI.  should  reig 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  when  he  died  Henry  au 
Catherine  should  be  king  and  queen  of  Franc. 
So  Henry  and  Catherine  were  married,  and  he  too 
her  home  to  England  with  great  joy  and  porn 
leaving  his  brother  Thomas,  Duke  of  Clarence,  1 
take  care  of  his  army  in  France.  For,  of  coins 
though  the  queen  had  made  this  treaty  for  her  ma 
husband,  most  brave,  honest  Frenchmen  could  nd 
but  feel  it  a  wicked  and  unfair  thing  to  give  tl 
kingdom  away  from  her  son,  the  Dauphin  Charle 
He  was  not  a  good  man,  and  had  consented  to  tl 
murder  of  his  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  an 
this  had  turned  some  against  him  ;  but  still  he  wa 
badly  treated,  and  the  bravest  Frenchmen  coul 
not  bear  to  see  their  country  given  up  to  tl 
English.  So,  though  he  took  no  trouble  to  figl 
for  himself,  they  fought  for  him,  and  got  son 
Scots  to  help  them ;  and  by  and  by  news  came  1 
Henry  that  his  army  had  been  beaten,  and  h 
brother  killed. 

He  came  back  again  in  haste  to  France,  and  h 
presence  made  everything  go  well  again ;  but  a 
the  winter  he  Avas  besieging  the  town  of  Meau 


Renry  V .,  of  Monmouth. 


163 


■here  there  was  a  very  cruel  robber,  who  made  all 
le  roads  to  Paris  unsafe,  and  by  the  time  he  had 
ken  it  his  health  was  much  injured.  His  queen 
une  to  him,  and  they  kept  a  very  grand  court  at 
aris,  at  Whitsuntide ;  but  soon  after,  when  Henry 
t  out  to  join  his  army,  he  found  himself  so  ill  and 
eak  that  he  was  obliged  to  turn  back  to  the 
astle  of  Vincennes,  where  he  grew  much  worse, 
e  called  for  all  his  friends,  and  begged  them  to  be 
itliful  to  his  little  baby  son,  whom  he  had  never 
iren  seen ;  and  he  spoke  especially  to  his  brother 
,)hn,  Duke  of  Bedford,  to  whom  he  left  the 
(’large  of  all  he  had  gained.  He  had  tried  to  be  a 
|iod  man,  and  though  his  attack  on  France  was 
ially  wrong,  and  caused  great  misery,  he  had 
leant  to  do  right.  So  he  was  not  afraid  to  face 
(ath,  and  he  died  when  only  thirty-four  years 
cl,  while  he  was  listening  to  the  51st  Psalm, 
keryhody  grieved  for  him  —  even  the  French  — 
t  d  nobody  had  ever  been  so  good  and  dutiful  to 
for  old  King  Charles,  who  sat  in  a  corner  lament- 
i  i  for  his  good  son  Henry,  and  wasting  away  till 
1  died,  only  three  weeks  later,  so  that  he  was 
1  ried  the  same  day,  at  St.  Denys  Abbey,  near 
Iris,  as  Henry  was  buried  at  Westminster  Abbey, 
rar  London. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

HENRY  VI.,  OF  WINDSOR. 

A.D.  1423—1461. 

'T'HE  poor  little  baby,  Henry  VI.,  was  but  nine 
^  months  old  when  —  over  the  grave  of  his 
father  in  England,  and  his  grandfather  in  France — 
he  was  proclaimed  King  of  France  and  England. 
The  crown  of  England  was  held  over  his  head,  and 
his  lords  made  their  oaths  to  him :  and  when  he 
was  nine  years  old  he  was  sent  to  Paris,  and  there 
crowned  King  of  France.  He  was  a  very  good, 
little,  gentle  boy,  as  meek  and  obedient  as  possible; 
but  his  friends,  who  knew  that  a  king  must  be 
brave,  strong,  and  firm  for  his  people’s  sake,  began 
to  be  afraid  that  nothing  would  ever  make  him 
manly.  The  war  in  France  went  on  all  the  time: 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  keeping  the  north  and  the  old 

lands  in  the  south-west  for  little  Henry,  and  the 
164 


Henry  VI.,  of  Windsor. 


167 


Yench  doing  their  best  for  their  rightful  king  — 
hough  he  was  so  lazy  and  fond  of  pleasure  that  he 
3t  them  do  it  all  alone. 

Yet  a  wonderful  thing  happened  in  his  favor, 
[he  English  were  besieging  Orleans,  when  a  young 
illage  girl,  named  Joan  of  Arc,  came  to  King 
diaries  and  told  him  that  she  had  had  a  commission 
l'oni  Heaven  to  save  Orleans,  and  to  lead  him  to 
theims,  where  French  kings  were  always  crowned. 
\nd  she  did!  She  always  acted  as  one  led  by 
leaven.  Many  wonderful  things  are  told  of  her, 
nd  one  circumstance  that  produced  a  great  im- 
iression  on  the  public  mind  was  that  when  brought 
nto  the  presence  of  Charles,  whom  she  had  never 
>efore  seen,  she  recognized  him,  although  he  was 
Iressed  plainly,  and  one  of  the  courtiers  had  on  the 
•oyal  apparel.  She  never  let  anything  wrong  be 
lone  in  her  sight  —  no  bad  words  spoken,  no 
avage  deeds  done ;  and  she  never  fought  herself, 
inly  led  the  French  soldiers.  The  English  thought 
ler  a  witch,  and  fled  like  sheep  whenever  they  saw 
ler ;  and  the  French  common  men  were  always 
irave  with  her  to  lead  them.  And  so  she  really 
,aved  Orleans,  and  brought  the  king  to  be  crowned 
it  Rheims.  But  neither  Charles  nor  his  selfish  bad 
lobles  liked  her.  She  was  too  good  for  them;  and 


168  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


so,  though  they  would  not  let  her  go  home  to  her 
village  as  she  wished,  they  gave  her  no  proper  help; 
and  once,  when  there  was  a  fight  going  on  outside 
the  walls  of  a  town,  the  French  all  ran  away  and 
left  her  outside,  where  she  was  taken  by  the 
English.  And  then,  I  grieve  to  sa}',  the  court  that 
sat  to  judge  her  —  some  English  and  some  French 
of  the  English  party — sentenced  her  to  be  burnt 
to  death  in  the  market  place  at  Rouen  as  a  witch, 
and  her  own  king  never  tried  to  save  her. 

But  the  spirit  she  had  stirred  up  never  died 
away.  The  French  went  on  winning  back  more 
and  more ;  and  there  were  so  many  quarrels  among 
the  English  that  they  had  little  chance  of  keeping 
anything.  The  king’s  youngest  uncle,  Humfrey, 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  was  always  disputing  with  the 
Beaufort  family,  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lan¬ 
caster —  father  to  Heniy  IV. — had,  late  in  life, 
married  a  person  of  low  birth,  and  her  children 
were  called  Beaufort,  after  the  castle  where  they 
were  born  —  not  Plantagenet  —  and  were  hardly 
reckoned  as  princes  by  other  people  ;  but  they  were 
very  proud,  and  thought  themselves  equal  to  any¬ 
body.  The  good  Duke  of  Bedford  died  quite 
worn  out  with  trying  to  keep  the  peace  among 
them,  and  to  get  proper  help  from  England  to  save 


Henry  J  /  .  of  Windsor.  169 

the  lands  his  brother  had  won  in  France.  All  this 
time,  the  king  liked  the  Beanforts  much  better 
than  Duke  Humfrey,  and  he  followed  their  advice, 
and  that  of  their  friends,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  in 
marrying  Margaret  of  Anjou  —  the  daughter  of  a 
French  prince,  who  had  a  right  to  a  great  part  of 
the  lands  the  English  held.  All  these  were  given 
back  to  her  father,  and  this  made  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester  and  all  the  English  more  angry,  and 
they  hated  the  young  queen  as  the  cause.  She 
was  as  bold  and  high-spirited  as  the  king  was  gentle 
and  meek.  He  loved  nothing  so  well  as  praying, 
praising  God,  and  reading ;  and  he  did  one  great 
thing  for  the  country  —  which  did  more  for  it  than 
all  the  fighting  kings  had  done  —  he  founded  Eton 
College,  close  to  Windsor  Castle  ;  and  there  many 
of  our  best  clergymen,  and  soldiers,  and  statesmen, 
have  had  their  education.  But  while  he  was 
happy  over  rules  for  his  scholars,  and  in  plans  for 
the  beautiful  chapel,  the  queen  was  eagerly  taking 
part  in  the  quarrels,  and  the  nation  hated  her  the 
more  for  interfering.  And  very  strangely,  Hum¬ 
frey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  was,  at  the  meeting  of 
Parliament,  accused  of  high  treason  and  sent  to 
prison,  where,  in  a  few  days,  he  was  found  dead  in 
his  bed — just  like  his  great-uncle,  Thomas,  Duke 


170  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

of  Gloucester ;  nor  does  anyone  understand  the 
mystery  in  one  case  better  than  in  the  other,  except 
that  we  are  more  sure  that  gentle  Henry  VI.  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it  than  we  can  be  of  Richard  IT. 

These  were  very  bad  times.  There  was  a  rising 
like  Wat  Tyler's,  under  a  man  named  Jack  Cade, 
who  held  London  for  two  or  three  days  before  he 
was  put  down ;  and.  almost  at  the  same  time,  the 
queen’s  first  English  friend,  Suffolk,  was  exiled  by 
her  enemies,  and  taken  at  sea  and  murdered  by 
some  sailors.  Moreover,  the  last  of  the  brave  old 
friends  of  Henry  V.  was  killed  in  France,  while 
trying  to  save  the  remains  of  the  old  duchy  of 
Aquitaine,  which  had  belonged  to  the  English 
kings  ever  since  Henry  II.  married  Queen  Eleanor. 
That  was  the  end  of  the  hundred  years’  war,  for 
peace  was  made  at  last,  and  England  kept  nothing 
in  France  but  the  one  city  of  Calais. 

Still  things  were  growing  worse.  Duke  Hum- 
frey  left  no  children,  and  as  time  went  on  and  the 
king  had  none,  the  question  was  who  should  reign. 
If  the  Beauforts  were  to  be  counted  as  princes, 
they  came  next ;  but  everyone  hated  them,  so  that 
people  recollected  that  Henry  IV.  had  thrust  aside 
the  young  Edmund  Mortimer,  grandson  to  Lionel, 
who  had  been  next  eldest  to  the  Black  Prince. 


Henry  FT.,  of  Windsor. 


171 


Edmund  was  dead,  but  liis  sister  Anne  had  married 
a  son  of  the  Duke  of  York,  youngest  son  of 
Edward  III. ;  and  her  son  Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
could  not  help  feeling  that  he  had  a  much  better 
right  to  he  king  than  any  Beaufort.  There  was  a 
great  English  noble  named  Richard  Nevil,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  who  liked  to  manage  everything — just 
the  sort  of  baron  that  was  always  mischievous  at 
home,  if  not  fighting  in  France  —  and  he  took  up 
York’s  cause  hotly.  York's  friends  used  to  wear 
white  roses,  Beaufort’s  friends  red  roses,  and  the 
two  parties  kept  on  getting  more  bitter ;  but  as  no 
one  wished  any  ill  to  gentle  King  Henry  —  who,  to 
make  matters  worse,  sometimes  had  fits  of  madness, 
like  Ins  poor  grandfather  in  France — ■  they  would 
hardly  have  fought  it  out  in  his  lifetime,  if  he  had 
not  at  last  had  a  little  son,  who  was  born  while  he 
was  so  mad  that  he  did  not  know  of  it.  Then, 
when  York  found  it  was  of  no  use  to  wait,  he 
began  to  make  war,  backed  up  by  Warwick,  and, 
after  much  fighting,  they  made  the  king  prisoner, 
and  forced  him  to  make  an  agreement  that  lie 
should  reign  as  long  as  he  lived,  but  that  after  that 
Richard  of  York  should  be  king,  and  his  son 
Edward  be  only  Duke  of  Lancaster.  This  made 
the  queen  furiously  angry.  She  would  not  give 


172  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

up  her  son’s  rights,  and  she  gathered  a  great  army, 
with  which  she  came  suddenly  on  the  Duke  of 
York  near  Wakefield,  and  destroyed  nearly  his 
whole  army.  He  was  killed  in  the  battle  ;  and  his 
second  son,  Edmund,  was  met  on  Wakefield  bridge 
and  stabbed  by  Lord  Clifford ;  and  Margaret  had 
their  heads  set  up  over  the  gates  of  York,  while 
she  went  on  to  London  to  free  her  husband. 

But  Edward,  York’s  eldest  son,  was  a  better 
captain  than  he,  and  far  fiercer  and  more  cruel. 
He  made  the  war  much  more  savage  than  it  had 
been  before  ;  and  after  beating  tire  queen’s  friends 
at  Mortimer’s  Cross,  he  hurried  on  to  London, 
where  the  people  —  who  had  always  been  very  fond 
of  his  father,  and  hated  Queen  Margaret  —  greeted 
him  gladly.  He  was  handsome  and  stately  look¬ 
ing  ;  and  though  he  was  really  cruel  when  offended, 
had  easy,  good-natured  manners,  and  everyone  in 
London  was  delighted  to  receive  him  and  own  him 
as  king.  But  Henry  and  Margaret  were  in  the 
north  with  many  friends,  and  he  followed  them 
thither  to  Towton  Moor,  where,  in  a  snow  storm, 
began  the  most  cruel  and  savage  battle  of  all  the 
war.  Edward  gained  the  victory,  and  nobody  was 
spared,  or  made  prisoner  —  all  were  killed  who 
could  not  flee.  Poor  Henry  was  hidden  among  Ms 


Henry  VI.,  of  Windsor. 


173 


riends,  and  Margaret  went  to  seek  help  in 
cotland  and  abroad,  taking  her  son  with  her. 
•nee  she  brought  another  army  and  fought  at 
'exham,  but  she  was  beaten  again;  and  before 
ng  King  Henry  was  discovered  by  his  enemies, 
i.rried  to  London,  and  shut  up  a  prisoner  in  the 
'  nver.  His  reign  is  reckoned  to  have  ended 


i  1461. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


EDWARD  IV. 

v.  n.  1 4<>  1 — 1483. 

r  I  ''HOUGH  Edward  IV.  was  made  king,  tl 
wars  of  the  Red  and  White  Roses  were  n 
over  yet.  Queen  Margaret  and  her  friends  we 
•always  trying  to  get  help  for  poor  King  Henr 
Edward  had  been  so  base  and  mean  as  to  have  hi 
led  into  London,  with  his  feet  tied  together  und 
his  horse,  while  men  struck  him  on  the  face,  ai 
cried  out,  “  Behold  the  traitor !  ”  But  Henry  \v 
meek,  patient,  and  gentle  throughout ;  and,  wh 
shut  up  in  the  Tower,  spent  his  time  in  readi: 
and  praying,  or  playing  with  his  little  dog. 

Queen  Margaret  and  her  son  Edward  were  livi 
with  her  father  in  France,  and  she  was  alwai 
trying  to  have  her  husband  set  free  and  broug 

back  to  his  throne.  In  the  meantime,  all  Englal 
174 


Edward  IV 


175 


was  exceedingly  surprised  to  find  that  Edward  IV. 
had  been  secretly  married  to  a  beautiful  lady 
named  Elizabeth  Woodville  —  Lady  Grey.  Her 
first  husband  had  been  killed  fighting  for  Henry, 
and  she  had  stood  under  an  oak  tree,  when  King 
Edward  was  passing,  to  entreat  that  his  lands 
might  not  be  taken  from  her  little  boys.  The  king- 
ell  in  love  with  her  and  married  her,  but  for  a 
ong  time  he  was  afraid  to  tell  the  Earl  of 
Varwick;  and  when  he  did,  Warwick  was  greatly 
tended  —  and  all  the  more  because  Elizabeth’s 
elations  were  proud  and  gay  in  their  dress,  and 
'tied  to  set  themselves  above  all  the  old  nobles. 
Varwick  himself  had  no  son,  but  he  had  two 
aughters,  whom  he  meant  to  marry  to  the  king’s 
vo  brothers  —  George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  and 
ichard,  Duke  of  Gloucester.  Edward  thought 
I  is  would  make  Warwick  too  powerful,  and 
1  ough  he  could  not  prevent  George  from  marrying 
libel  Nevil,  the  eldest  daughter,  the  discontent 
£3W  so  strong  that  Warwick  persuaded  George  to 
f  with  him,  turn  against  his  own  brother,  and 
oer  Queen  Margaret  their  help!  No  wonder 
Mrgaret  did  not  trust  them,  and  was  very  hard  to 
p-suade  that  Warwick  could  mean  well  by  her; 
b  ',  at  last  she  consented,  and  gave  her  son 


17fi 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


Edward  —  a  fine  lad  of  sixteen  —  to  many  his 
daughter,  Anne  Nevil ;  after  which,  Warwick  — 
whom  men  began  to  call  the  king-maker  —  went 
hack  to  England  with  Clarence,  to  raise  their  men, 
while  she  was  to  follow'  with  her  son  and  his  young  j 
wife.  Warw  ick  came  so  suddenly  that  he  took  the 
Yorkists  at  unawares.  Edward  had  to  flee  for  his  j 
life  to  Flanders,  leaving  his  wife  and  his  babies  to 
take  shelter  in  Westminster  Abbey  —  since  no  one  1 
durst  take  any  one  out  of  a  holy  place  —  and  poor  i 
Henry  was  taken  out  of  prison  and  set  on  the 
throne  again.  However,  Edward  soon  got  help  inf 
Flanders,  where  bis  sister  was  married  to  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy.  He  came  back  again,  gathered  his 
friends,  and  sent  messages  to  his  brother  Clarence 
that  he  would  forgive  him  if  he  would  desert  the 
earl.  Xo  one  ever  had  less  faith  or  honor  than 
George  of  Clarence.  He  did  desert  Warwick,  just 
as  the  battle  of  Barnet  Heath  was  beginning ;  and 
Warwick's  king-making  all  ended,  for  he  wa; 
killed,  with  his  brother  and  many  others,  in  the 
battle. 

And  this  was  the  first  news  that  met  Margare 
when,  after  being  long  hindered  by  foul  veathei 
she  landed  at  Plymouth.  She  would  have  doc 
more  wisely  to  have  gone  back,  but  her  so" 


INTERVIEW  BETWEEN  EDWARD  IV.  AND  LOUIS  XI. 


Fdward  V. 


187 


that  this  pretence  at  fear  was  very  foolish,  and  was 
only  intended  to  do  them  harm,  and  that,  the  little 
Duke  of  York  ought  to  be  with  his  brother ;  and 
they  sent  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  desire 
her  to  give  the  boy  up.  He  found  the  queen  sit¬ 
ting  desolate,  with  all  her  long  light  hair  streaming 
about  her,  and  her  children  round  her ;  and  he 
spoke  kindly  to  her  at  first,  and  tried  to  persuade 
her  of  what  he  really  believed  himself  —  that  it 
was  all  her  foolish  fears  and  fancies  that  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester  could  mean  any  ill  to  his  little 
nephew,  and  that  the  two  brothers  ought  to  be 
together  in  his  keeping. 

Elizabeth  cried,  and  said  that  the  boys  were 
better  apart,  for  they  quarrelled  when  they  were 
together,  and  that  she  could  not  give  up  little 
Richard.  In  truth,  she  guessed  that  their  uncle 
vanted  to  get  rid  of  them  and  to  reign  himself ; 
ind  she  knew  that  while  she  had  Richard,  Edward 
,vould  be  safe,  since  it  would  not  make  him  king 
,o  destroy  one  without  the  other.  Archbishop 
Vlorton,  who  believed  Richard’s  smooth  words,  and 
vas  a  very  good,  kind  man,  thought  this  all  a 
voman’s  nonsense,  and  told  her  that  if  she  would 
lot  give  up  the  boy  freely,  he  would  be  taken  from 
ter  by  force.  If  she  had  been  really  a  wise,  brave 


188  Young  Folk s’  History  of  England. 


mother,  she  would  have  gone  to  the  Tower  with 
her  boy,  as  queen  and  mother,  and  watched  over 
her  children  herself.  But  she  had  always  been  a 
silly,  selfish  woman,  and  she  was  afraid  for  herself. 
So  she  let  the  archbishop  lead  her  child  away,  and 
only  sat  crying  in  the  sanctuary  instead  of  keeping 
sight  of  him. 

The  next  thing  that  happened  was,  that  the 
I  )uke  of  Gloucester  caused  one  Dr.  Shaw  to  preach 
a  sermon  to  the  people  of  London  in  the  open  air, 
explaining  that  King  Edward  IV.  had  been  a  very 
bad  man,  and  had  never  been  properly  married  to 
Lady  Grey,  and  so  that  she  was  no  queen  at  all, 
and  her  children  had  no  right  to  reign.  The  Lon¬ 
doners  liked  Gloucester  and  hated  the  Woodvilles. 
and  all  belonging  to  them,  and  after  some  sermons 
and  speeches  of  this  sort,  there  were  so  many  people 
inclined  to  take  as  their  king  the  man  rather  than 
the  boy,  that  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  led  a 
deputation  to  request  Richard  to  accept  the  crown 
in  his  nephew’s  stead.  He  met  it  as  if  the  whole 
notion  was  quite  new  to  him,  but,  of  course, 
accepted  the  crown,  sent  for  his  wife,  Anne  Nevil, 
and  her  son,  and  was  soon  crowned  as  King 
Richard  III.  of  England. 

As  for  the  two  boys,  they  were  never  seen  out  of 


Edward  V. 


189 


he  Tower  again.  They  were  sent  into  the  prison 
art  of  it,  and  nobody  exactly  knows  what  became 
f  them  there  ;  but  there  cannot  he  much  doubt 
lat  the}-  must  have  been  murdered.  Some  years 
iter,  two  men  confessed  that  they  had  been 
nployed  to  smother  the  two  brothers  with  pillows, 
is  they  slept ;  and  though  they  added  some  partic- 
ars  to  the  story  that  can  hardly  be  believed,  it  is 
ost  likely  that  this  was  true.  Full  two  hundred 
ears  later,  a  chest  was  found  under  a  staircase,  in 
hat  is  called  the  White  Tower,  containing  bones 
tat  evidently  had  belonged  to  boys  of  about 
f  irteen  and  eleven  years  old ;  and  these  were 
1  iced  in  a  marble  urn  among  the  tombs  of  the 
figs  in  Westminster  Abbey.  But  even  to  this 
dy,  there  are  some  people  who  doubt  whether 
1  ward  Y.  and  Richard  of  York  were  really 
o  rdered,  or  if  Richard  were  not  a  person  who 
cine  back  to  England  and  tried  to  make  himself 
kg. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


RICHARD  IIT. 

a.  i).  1483 — 1485. 

~Q  ICHARD  III.  seems  to  have  'washed  to  be 
■*-  good  and  great  king ;  but  be  had  made  h 
way  to  the  throne  in  too  evil  a  manner  to  be  like 
to  prosper.  How  many  people  he  had  put  to  dea 
we  do  not  know,  for  when  the  English  began 
suspect  that  he  had  murdered  his  two  nephew 
they  also  accused  him  of  the  death  of  everyone  w 
had  been  secretly  slain  ever  since  Edward  I 
came  to  the  throne,  when  he  had  been  a  mere  be 
He  found  he  must  be  always  on  the  watch ;  a 
his  home  was  unhappy,  for  his  son,  for  whose  sa 
he  had  striven  so  hard  to  be  king,  died  while  y 
a  boy,  and  Anne,  his  wife,  not  long  after. 

Then  his  former  staunch  friend,  the  Duke  I 
Buckingham,  began  to  feel  that  though  he  wanil 

the  sons  of  Elizabeth  Woodville  to  be  set  as? 

190 


t 


Richard  III. 


191 


Tom  reigning,  it  was  quite  another  thing  to 
nurder  them.  He  was  a  vain,  proud  man,  who 
lad  a  little  royal  blood  —  being  descended  from 
Thomas,  the  first  Duke  of  Gloucester,  son  of 
idward  III.  —  and  he  bethought  himself  that,  now 
11  the  House  of  Lancaster  was  gone,  and  so  many 
f  the  House  of  York,  lie  might  possibly  become 
ing.  But  he  had  hardly  begun  to  make  a  plot, 
efore  the  keen-sighted,  watchful  Richard  found  it 
ut,  and  had  him  seized  and  beheaded. 

There  was  another  plot,  though,  that  Richard 
id  not  find  out  in  time.  The  real  House  of  Ban¬ 
ister  had  ended  when  poor  young  Edward  was 
Idled  at  Tewkesbury;  but  the  Beauforts — the 
pildren  of  that  younger  family  of  John  of  Gaunt, 
ho  had  first  begun  the  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of 
ork  —  were  not  all  dead.  Lady  Margaret  Beau- 
trt,  the  daughter  of  the  eldest  son,  had  married  a 
elsh  gentleman  named  Edmund  Tudor,  and  had 
son  called  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond. 
|lward  IV.  had  always  feared  that  this  youth 
1  ght  rise  against  him,  and  he  had  been  obliged  to 
under  about  in  France  and  Brittany  since  the 
dath  of  his  father;  but  nobody  was  afraid  of  Lady 
Jiirgaret,  and  she  had  married  a  Yorkist  nobleman, 

I  rd  Stanley. 


192  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


Now,  the  eldest,  daughter  of  Edward  IV.  — 
Elizabeth,  or  Lady  Bessee,  as  she  was  called  — 
was  older  than  her  poor  young  brothers ;  and  she 
heard,  to  her  great  horror,  that  her  uncle  wanted 
to  commit  the  great  wickedness  of  making  her  his 
wife,  after  poor  Anne  Nerd's  death.  There  is  a 
curious  old  set  of  verses,  written  by  Lord  Stanley’s 
squire,  which  says  that  Lady  Bessee  called  Lore 
Stanley  to  a  secret  room,  and  begged  him  to  sene 
to  his  stepson,  Richmond,  to  invite  him  to  come  tel 
England  and  set  them  all  free. 

Stanley  said  he  could  not  write  well  enough,  anc 
that  he  could  not  trust  a  scribe;  but  Lady  Bessee 
saiel  she  could  write  as  well  as  any  scribe  ir 
England.  So  she  told  him  to  come  to  her  chambei 
at  nine  that  evening,  with  his  trusty  squire ;  anc 
there  she  wrote  letters,  kneeling  by  the  table,  to  all 
the  noblemen  likely  to  be  discontented  witl 
Richard,  and  appointing  a  place  of  meeting  witl  j 
Stanley;  and  she  promised  herself  that,  if  Henrj  I 
Tudor  would  come  and  overthrow  the  cruel  tyranl 
Richard,  she  would  marry  him :  and  she  sent  him 
a  ring  in  pledge  of  her  promise. 

Henry  was  in  Brittany  when  he  received  the 
letter,  lie  kissed  the  ring,  but  waited  long  before 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  try  his  fortune.  At  last 


2Ji|y  TUDOR  CROWNED  ON  THE  BATTI. 


E-FIELD  OF  BOSWORTH. 


Richard  JII. 


195 


he  sailed  in  a  French  ship,  and  landed  at  Milford 
Haven  —  for  he  knew  the  Welsh  would  be  de¬ 
lighted  to  see  him  ;  and,  as  he  was  really  descended 
from  the  great  old  British  chiefs,  they  seemed  to 
think  that  to  make  him  king  of  England  would  he 
almost  like  having  King  Arthur  back  again. 

They  gathered  round  him,  and  so  did  a  great 
many  English  nobles  and  gentlemen.  But  Richard, 
though  very  angry,  was  not  much  alarmed,  for  he 
knew  Henry  Tudor  had  never  seen  a  battle.  He 
marched  out  to  meet  him,  and  a  terrible  fight  took 
place  at  Redmore  Heath,  near  Market  Bosworth, 
where,  after  long  and  desperate  struggling,  Richard 
was  overwhelmed  and  slain,  his  banner  taken,  and 
his  men  either  killed  or  driven  from  the  field.  His 
body  was  found  gashed,  bleeding,  and  stripped ; 
and  thus  was  thrown  across  a  hoi’se  and  carried  into 
Leicester,  where  he  had  slept  the  night  before. 

The  crown  he  had  worn  over  his  helmet  was 
picked  up  from  the  branches  of  a  hawthorn,  and 
set  on  the  head  of  Henry  Tudor.  Richard  was 
the  hist,  king  of  the  Plantagenet  family,  who  had 
■  uled  over  England  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years.  This  battle  of  Bosworth  likewise  finished 
Re  whole  bloody  war  of  the  Red  and  White  Roses. 


HENRY  Tudor  married  the  Lady  Lessee  as 
soon  as  he  came  to  London,  and  by  this 
marriage  the  causes  of  the  Red  and  White  Roses 
were  united ;  so  that  he  took  for  his  badge  a  great 
rose  —  half  red  and  half  white.  You  may  see  it 


1UG 


Henry  VII. 


197 


carved  all  over  the  beautiful  chapel  that  he  built 
jon  to  Westminster  Abbey  to  be  buried  in. 

He  was  not  a  very  pleasant  person ;  he  was  stiff, 
and  cold,  and  dry,  and  very  mean  and  covetous  in 
some  ways  —  though  he  liked  to  make  a  grand 
show,  and  dress  all  his  court  in  cloth  of  gold  and 
silver,  and  the  very  horses  in  velvet  housings, 
whenever  there  was  any  state  occasion.  Nobody 
greatly  cared  for  him ;  but  the  whole  country  was 
so  worn  out  with  the  troubles  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses./ that  there  was  no  desire  to  interfere  with 
him  ;  and  people  only  grumbled,  and  said  he  did 
not  treat  his  gentle,  beautiful  wife  Elizabeth  as  he 
ought  to  do,  but  was  jealous  of  her  being  a  king’s 
laughter.  There  was  one  person  who  did  hate 
him  most  bitterly,  and  that  was  the  Duchess  of 
Burgundy,  the  sister  of  Edward  IV.  and  Richard 
III. :  the  same  who,  as  I  told  you,  encouraged 
printing  so  much.  She  felt  as  if  a  mean  upstart 
had  got  into  the  place  of  her  brothers,  and  his 
naving  married  her  niece  did  not  make  it  seem  a 
ait  the  better  to  her.  There  was  one  nephew  left 
—  the  poor  young  orphan  son  of  George,  Duke  of 
Clarence  —  but  lie  had  always  been  quite  silly,  and 
Henry  VII.  had  him  watched  carefully,  for  fear 
iome  one  should  set  him  up  to  claim  the  crown. 


198  Young  Folk T  History  of  England. 


He  was  called  Earl  of  Warwick,  as  heir  to  his 
grandfather,  the  king-maker. 

Suddenly,  a  young  man  came  to  Ireland  and 
pretended  to  be  this  Earl  of  Warwick.  He  de-  . 
ceived  a  good  many  of  the  Irish,  and  the  Mayor  of 
Dublin  actually  took  him  to  St,  Patrick’s  Cathe-  : 
dial,  where  he  was  crowned  as  King  Edward  the 
Sixth  :  and  then  he  was  carried  to  the  banquet  upon 
an  Irish  chieftain's  back.  He  came  to  England 

O  ’  ■ 

with  some  Irish  followers,  and  some  German 
soldiers  hired  by  the  duchess ;  and  a  few,  but  not 
many,  English  joined  him.  Henry  met  him  at  a 
village  called  Stoke,  near  Newark,  and  all  his  Ger¬ 
mans  and  Irish  were  killed,  and  lie  himself  made 
prisoner.  Then  he  confessed  that  lie  was  really  a 
baker’s  son,  named  Lambert  Simnel ;  and,  as  lie 
turned  out  to  be  a  poor  weak  lad,  whom  designing?; 
people  had  made  to  do  just  what  they  pleased,  the 
king  took  him  into  his  kitchen  as  a  scullion  ;  and, 
as  he  behaved  well  there,  afterwards  set  him  to 
look  after  the  falcons,  that  people  used  to  keep  to 
go  out  with  to  catch  partridges  and  herons. 

But  after  tliis,  a  young  man  appeared  under  the 
protection  of  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  who  said 
he  was  no  other  than  the  poor  little  Duke  of  York,  | 
Richard,  who  had  escaped  from  the  Tower  when 


Henry  177. 


201 


his  brother  was  murdered.  Englishmen,  wno  came 
from  Flanders,  said  that  he  was  a  clever,  cowardly 
lad  of  the  name  of  Peter  (or  Perkin)  Warbeck,  the 
son  of  a  townsman  of  Tournay ;  but  the  duchess 
persuaded  King  James  IV.  of  Scotland  to  believe 
him  a  real  royal  Plantagenet.  He  went  to  Edin¬ 
burgh,  married  a  beautiful  lady,  cousin  to  the  king, 
and  James  led  him  into  England  at  the  head  of  an 
army  to  put  forward  his  claim.  But  nobody 
would  join  him,  and  the  Scots  did  not  care  about 
him ;  so  James  sent  him  away  to  Ireland,  whence 
he  went  to  Cornwall.  However,  he  soon  found 
fighting  was  of  no  use,  and  fled  away  to  the  New 
Forest,  where  he  was  taken  prisoner.  He  was  set 
in  the  stocks,  and  there  made  to  confess  that  he 
was  really  Perkin  Warbeck  and  no  duke,  and  then 
he  was  shut  up  in  the  Tower.  But  there  he  made 
friends  with  the  real  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  persuad¬ 
ed  him  into  a  plan  for  escape  ;  but  this  was  found 
)ut,  and  Henry,  thinking  that  he  should  never 
iave  any  peace  or  safety  whilst  either  of  them  was 
dive,  caused  Perkin  to  be  hanged,  and  poor 
nnocent  Edward  of  Warwick  to  be  beheaded. 

It  was  thought  that  this  cruel  deed  was  done 
oecause  Henry  found  that  foreign  kings  did  not 
hink  him  safe  upon  the  throne  while  one  Plan- 


202  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 

tagnet  was  left  alive,  and  would  not  give  their 
children  in  marriage  to  his  sons  and  daughters. 
He  was  very  anxious  to  make  grand  marriages  for 
his  children,  and  make  peace  with  Scotland  by 
a  wedding  between  King  James  and  his  eldest 
daughter,  Margaret.  For  his  eldest  son,  Arthur, 
Prince  of  Wales,  he  obtained  Katharine,  the 
daughter  of  the  King  of  Aragon  and  Queen  of 
Castille,  and  she  was  brought  to  England  while 
both  were  mere  children.  Prince  Arthur  died 
when  only  eighteen  years  old ;  and  King  Henry 
then  said  that  they  had  been  both  such  children 
that  they  could  not  be  considered  as  really  married, 
and  so  that  Katharine  had  better  marry  his  next- 
son,  Henry,  although  everyone  knew  that  no  mar¬ 
riage  between  a  man  and  Ins  brother’s  widow'  could 
be  lawful.  The  truth  was  that  he  did  not  like  to 
give  up  all  the  money  and  jewels  she  had  brought ; 
and  the  matter  remained  in  dispute  for  some  years 
—  nor  was  it  settled  when  King  Henry  himself 
died,  after  an  illness  that  no  one  expected  would 
cause  his  death.  Nobody  wras  very  sorry  for  him, 
for  he  had  been  hard  upon  everyone,  and  had 
encouraged  turo  wicked  judges,  named  Dudley  and 
Empson,  who  made  people  pay  most  unjust  de- 


Henry  VII. 


203 


mands,  and  did  everything  to  fill  the  king’s  treasury 
and  make  themselves  rich  at  the  same  time. 

It  was  a  time  when  many  changes  were  going  on 
peacefully.  The  great  nobles  had  grown  much 
poorer  and  less  powerful ;  and  the  country  squires 
and  chief  people  in  the  towns  reckoned  for  much 
more  in  the  State.  Moreover,  there  was  much 
learning  and  study  going  on  everywhere.  Greek 
began  to  he  taught  as  well  as  Latin,  and  the  New 
’testament  was  thus  read  in  the  language  in  which 
the  apostles  themselves  wrote  ;  and  that  led  people 
to  think  over  some  of  the  evil  ways  that  had  grown 
up  in  their  churches  and  abbeys,  during  those  long, 
grievous  years,  when  no  one  thought  of  much  but 
fighting,  or  ot  getting  out  of  the  way  of  the 
enemy. 

The  king  himself,  and  all  his  family,  loved  learn- 
ing,  and  nobody  more  than  his  son  Henry,  who — if 
his  elder  brother  had  lived — was  to  have  been 
archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

It  was  in  this  reign,  too,  that  America  was 
discovered  — though  not  by  the  English,  but  by 
Christopher  Columbus,  an  Italian,  who  came  out 
in  ships  that  were  lent  to  him  by  Isabel,  the  Queen 
af  Spain,  mother  to  Katharine,  Princess  of  Wales. 


204  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


Henry  had  been  very  near  sending  Columbus,  only 
be  did  not  like  spending  so  much  money.  How¬ 
ever.  he  afterwards  did  send  out  some  ships,  which 
discovered  Newfoundland.  Henry  died  in  the 
year  1509. 


t 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

HENRY  VIII.  ANI)  CARDINAL  WOLSEY. 


A.D.  1509—1529. 


"PHE  new  king  was  very  fond  of  the  Princess 
Katharine,  and  lie  married  her  soon  after 
is  father’s  death,  without  asking  any  more  ques- 
ons  about  the  right  or  wrong  of  it.  He  began 
ith  very  gallant  and  prosperous  times.  He  was 

sry  handsome,  and  skilled  in  all  sports  and 
205 


206  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


games,  and  had  sneli  frank,  free  manners,  that  the 
people  felt  as  if  they  had  one  of  their  best  old  Plan- 
tagenets  back  again.  They  were  pleased,  too,  when 
he  quarreled  with  the  King  of  France,  and  like  an 
old  Plantagenet,  led  an  army  across  the  sea  and 
besieged  the  town  of  Tournay.  Again,  it  was  like 
the  time  of  Edward  III.,  for  James  IV.  of  Scotland 
was  a  friend  of  the  French  king,  and  came  across 
the  Border  with  all  the  strength  of  Scotland,  to 
ravage  England  while  Henry  was  away.  But 
there  were  plenty  of  stout  Englishmen  left,  and 
under  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  they  beat  the  Scots  ■ 
entirely  at  the  battle  of  Flodden  field;  and  King  i 
James  himself  was  not  taken,  but  left  dead  upon  the 
field,  while  his  kingdom  went  to  his  poor  little  baby  | 
son.  Though  there  had  been  a  battle  in  France  it  i 
was  not  another  Creey,  for  the  French  ran  away 
so  fast  that  it  was  called  the  battle  of  the  Spurs. 
However,  Henry's  expedition  did  not  come  to  ( 
much,  for  he  did  not  get  all  the  help  he  was  S 
promised :  and  he  made  peace  with  the  Frenct  ■ 
king,  giving  him  in  marriage  his  beautiful  young  I 
sister  Alary  —  though  King  Louis  was  an  old,  help* 
ldss,  sickly  man.  Indeed,  he  only  lived  six  week  i 

after  the  wedding,  and  before  there  was  time  to :( 

}] 

fetch  Queen  Alary  home  again,  she  had  married  i  > 


Henry  VIII.  and  Cardinal  Wolsey.  207 

t  ntleman  named  Charles  Brandon.  She  told  her 
lother  that  she  had  married  once  to  please  him, 
;  d  now  she  had  married  to  please  herself.  But 
]  forgave  her,  and’  made  her  husband  Duke  of 
tiffolk. 

Henry’s  chief  adviser,  at  this  time,  was  Thomas 
Tolsey,  Archbishop  of  York  ;  a  very  able  man,  and 

i  most  splendid  tastes  and  habits  —  outdoing  even 
t3  Tudors  in  love  of  show.  The  pope  had  made 
1  n  a  cardinal  —  that  is,  one  of  the  clergy,  who 
a?  counted  as  parish  priests  in  the  diocese  of 
bine,  and  therefore  have  a  right  to  choose  the 
fpe.  They  wear  scarlet  hats,  capes,  and  shoes, 
ad  are  the  highest  in  rank  of  all  the  clergy  except 
1 3  pope.  Indeed,  Cardinal  Wolsey  was  in  hopes 
o  being  chosen  pope  himself,  and  setting  the 
viole  Church  to  rights  —  for  there  had  been  several 
vry  wicked  men  reigning  at  -Rome,  one  after  the 
oier,  and  they  had  brought  things  to  such  a  pass 
t  it  everyone  felt  there  would  be  some  great  judg- 

ii  nt  from  God  if  some  improvement  were  not 
n  de.  Most  of  Wolsey’s  arrangements  with  for- 
e  n  princes  had  this  end  in  view.  The  new  king 
o  France,  Francis  I.,  was  young,  brilliant  and 
siendid,  like  Henry,  and  the  two  had  a  conference 
mr  Calais,  when  they  brought  their  queens  and 


208  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


tlieir  whole  Court,  and  put  up  tents  of  velvet,  si 
and  gold  —  while  everything  was  so  extraordinai 
magnificent,  that  the  meeting  has  ever  since  b§ 
called  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold. 

However,  nothing  came  of  it  all.  Cardin 
Wolsey  thought  Francis's  enemy  —  the  Empe]« 
Charles  V.  —  more  likely  to  help  him  to  be  pcLj 
and  make  his  master  go  over  to  that  side  ;  but  an 
all  an  Italian  was  chosen  in  his  stead.  And  this 
came  a  new  trouble  in  his  way.  The  king  il 
queen  had  been  married  a  good  many  years,  « 
they  had  only  one  child  alive,  and  that  was  a  gl 
the  Lady  Mary — all  the  others  had  died  as  soorj| 
they  were  born  —  and  statesmen  began  to  tlrfi 
that  if  there  never  was  a  son  at  all,  there  might  5 
fresh  wars  when  Henry  died ;  while  others  sh 
that  the  loss  of  the  children  was  to  punish  thl 
for  marrying  unlawfully.  Wolsey  himself  bep 
to  wish  that  the  pope  would  say  that  it  had  ue  f 
been  a  real  marriage,  and  so  set  the  king  free  I 
put  Katharine  away  and  take  another  wife  —  sol 
grand  princess  abroad.  This  was  thinking  moref 
what  seemed -prudent  than  of  the  right;  and.t 
turned  out  ill  for  Wolsey  and  all  besides,  for  b 
sooner  had  the  notion  of  setting  aside  poor  Kat“ 
line  come  into  his  mind,  than  the  king  cast  1 


T* 

V'Wg 

'::;i 

pf||j|j[ 

si.  M 

K‘ 

g 

mSm 

CARDINAL  WOLSKV  SERVED  BY  NOBLEMEN. 


Henry  VIII.  and  Cardinal  Wolsey.  211 

eyes  on  Anne  Boleyn,  one  of  her  maids  of  honor  — 
a  lively  lady,  who  had  been  to  France  with  his 
sister  Mary.  He  was  bent  on  marrying  her,  and 
insisted  on  the  pope’s  giving  sentence  against  Kath¬ 
arine.  But  the  pope  would  not  make  any  answer 
at  all;  first,  because  he  was  enquiring,  and  then 
because  he  could  not  well  offend  Katharine’s 
nephew,  the  Emperor.  Time  went  on,  and  the 
king  grew  more  impatient,  and  at  last  a  clergyman, 
named  Thomas  Cranmer,  said  that  he  might  settle 
the  matter  by  asking  the  learned  men  at  the  uni¬ 
versities  whether  it  was  lawful  for  a  man  to  marry 
Ms  brother’s  widow.  “  He  has  got  the  right  sow 
by  the  ear,”  cried  Henry,  who  was  not  choice  in  his 
words,  and  he  determined  that  the  universities 
should  decide  it.  But  Wolsey  would  not  help  the 
king  here.  He  knew  that  the  pope  had  been  the 
only  person  to  decide  such  questions  all  over  the 
Western  Church  for  many  centuries;  and,  besides, 
he  had  never  intended  to  assist  the  king  to  lower 
himself  b}r  taking  a  wife  like  Anne  Boleyn.  But 
Ms  secretary,  Thomas  Crum  well,  told  the  king  all 
of  Wolsey ’s  disapproval,  and  between  them  they 
found  out  something  that  the  cardinal  had  done  by 
the  king’s  own  wish,  but  which  did  not  agree  with 
the  old  disused  laws.  He  was  put  down  from  all 


212  Y<>\nu)  Folk s’  History  of  England. 

his  offices  of  state,  and  accused  of  treason  against 
the  king;  hut  while  he  was  being  brought  to 
London  to  be  tried,  he  became  so  ill  at  the  abbey 
at  Leicester  that  he  was  forced  to  remain  there, 
and  in  a  few  days  he  died,  saying,  sadly  —  “If  I 
had  served  my  God  as  I  have  served  my  king,  He 
would  not  have  forsaken  me  in  my  old  age.” 

With  Cardinal  Wolsey  ended  the  first  twenty 
years  of  Henry's  reign,  and  all  that  had  ever  been 
good  in  it. 


HENRY  VIII.  AND  HIS  WIVES. 


A.  i).  1528 — 1547. 


WHEN  Henry  VIII.  had  so  ungratefully 
treated  Cardinal  Wolsey,  there  was  no 
pne  to  keep  him  in  order.  He  would  have  no 
more  to  do  with  the  pope,  hut  said  he  was  head  of 
the  Church  of  England  himself,  and  could  settle 
matters  his  own  way.  He  really  was  a  very 


214  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


learned  man,  and  had  written  a  book  to  uphold 
the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  which  had  caused  the 
people  to  call  him  the  Defender  of  the  Faith. 
After  the  king's  or  queen’s  name  on  an  English 
coin  you  may  see  F.  D.  — Fidei  Defensor.  This 
stands  for  that  name  in  Latin.  But  Henry  used 
his  learning  now  against  the  pope.  He  declared 
that  his  marriage  with  Katharine  was  good  for 
nothing,  and  sent  her  away  to  a  house  in  Hunting¬ 
donshire,  where,  in  tlirSe  years’  time,  she  pined 
away  and  died.  In  the  meantime,  he  had  married 
Anne  Boleyn,  taken  Crum  well  for  his  chief  adviser, 
and  had  made  Thomas  Cranmer  archbishop  of  Can¬ 
terbury.  Then,  calling  himself  head  of  the  Chinch, 
he  insisted  that  all  his  people  should  own  him  as 
such ;  but  the  good  ones  knew  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  real  Head  of  the  Chinch,  and 
they  had  learnt  to  believe  that  the  pope  is  the 
father  bishop  of  the  west,  though  he  had  sometimes 
taken  more  power  than  he  ought,  and  no  king 
could  ever  be  the  same  as  a  patriarch  or  father 
bishop.  So  they  refused,  and  Henry  cut  off  the 
heads  of  two  of  the  best  —  Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir 
Thomas  More  —  though  they  had  been  his  great 
friends.  Sir  Thomas  More’s  good  daughter  Mar¬ 
garet,  came  and  kissed  him  on  Iris  way  to  be 


iPMimumm 


■  . 


PARTING  OF  SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AND  HIS  DAUGHTER, 


inffTTTTTnitiiii.iiMmniiiiiiiniiiiii 


Henry  VIII.  and  his  Wives.  217 

executed ;  and  afterwards,  when  his  head  was 
placed  on  a  spike  on  London  Bridge,  she  came  by 
night  in  a  boat  and  took  it  home  in  her  arms. 

There  were  many  people,  however,  who  were 
glad  to  break  with  the  pope,  because  so  much  had 
gone  amiss  in  the  Church,  and  they  wanted  to  set 
it  to  rights.  There  was  so  much  more  reading, 
now  that  printing  had  been  invented,  that  many 
persons  could  read  who  had  never  learnt  Latin, 
and  so  a  translation  of  the  Bible  was  to  be  made 
for  them:  and  there  was  a  great  desire  that  the 
Church  Services  —  many  of  which  had  also  been  in 
Latin  —  should  likewise  be  put  into  English,  and 
the  litany  was  first  translated,  but  no  more  at 
present.  The  king  and  Crumwell  had  taken  it 
upon  them  to  go  on  with  what  had  been  begun  in 
Wolsey’s  time  —  the  looking  into  the  state  of  all 
the  monasteries.  Some  were  found  going  on  badly, 
and  the  messengers  took  care  to  make  the  worst  of 
'everything.  So  all  the  worst  houses  were  broken 
up,  and  the  monks  sent  to  their  homes,  with  a 
small  payment  to  maintain  them  for  the  rest  of 
their  lives. 

As  to  the  lands  that  good  men  of  old  had  given 
to  keep  up  the  convents,  that  God  might  be  praised 
there,  Henry  made  gifts  of  them  to  the  lords  about 


218  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

Court.  Whoever  chose  to  ask  for  an  abbey  coulo, 
get  it,  from  the  king’s  good  nature ;  and,  as  the) 
wanted  more  and  more,  Henry  went  on  breaking: 
up  the  monasteries,  till  the  whole  of  them  wen 
gone.  A  good  deal  of  their  riches  he  kept  for  him 
self,  and  two  new  bishoprics  were  endowed  froir 
their  spoils,  but  most  of  them  were  bestowed  or 
the  courtiers.  The  king,  however,  did  not  at  al 
intend  to  change  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  anc  i 
whenever  a  person  was  detected  in  teaching  any 
thing  contrary  to  her  doctrines,  as  they  were  al 
that  time  understood,  he  was  tried  by  a  court  o: 
clergymen  and  lawyers  before  the  bishop,  and,  i  i 
convicted,  was  —  according  to  the  cruel  custom  o: 
those  times  —  burnt  to  death  at  a  stake  in  tht 
market  place  of  the  next  town. 

Meantime,  the  new  qneen,  Anne  Boleyn,  whom 
the  king  had  married  privately  in  May,  1533,  hac  i 
not  prospered.  She  had  one  little  daughter,  named  | 
Elizabeth,  and  a  son,  who  died ;  and  then  the  king  A 
began  to  admire  one  of  her  ladies,  named  Jam  'i 
Seymour.  Seeing  this  Anne’s  enemies  either  ;| 
invented  stories  against  her,  or  made  the  worst  oi  ; 
some  foolish,  unlady-like,  and  unqueen-like  things 
she  had  said  and  done,  so  that  the  king  thought 
she  wished  for  his  death.  She  was  accused  of  high 


Henry  VIII.  and  his  Wives.  219 

reason,  sentenced  to  death,  and  beheaded:  thus 
laying  a  heavy  price  for  the  harm  she  had  done 
ood  Queen  Katharine. 

The  king,  directly  after,  married  Jane  Seymour; 
ut  she  lived  only  a  very  short  time,  dying 
inmediately  after  the  christening  of  her  first  son, 
.  ho  was  named  Edward. 

Then  the  king  was  persuaded  by  Lord  Crumwell 
o  marry  a  foreign  princess  called  Anne  of  Cleves. 
t  great  painter  was  sent  to  bring  her  picture,  and 
fade  her  very  beautiful  in  it;  but  when  she 
rrived,  she  proved  to  be  not  only  plain-featured 
ut  large  and  clumsy,  and  the  king  could  not  bear 
he  sight  of  her,  and  said  they  had  sent  him  a  great 
landers  mare  by  way  of  queen.  So  he  made 
ranmer  find  some  foolish  excuse  for  breaking  this 
carriage  also,  and  was  so  angry  with  Thomas 
'rum well  for  having  led  him  into  it,  that  this 
ivorite  was  in  his  turn  thrown  into  prison  and  be- 
eaded. 

The  king  chose  another  English  wife,  named 
.atharine  Howard ;  but,  after  he  had  married  her, 

.  was  found  out  that  she  had  been  very  ill  brought 
p,  and  the  bad  people  with  whom  she  had  been 
:ft  came  and  accused  her  of  the  evil  into  which 
ley  had  led  her.  So  the  king  cut  off  her  head 


220  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


likewise,  and  then  wanted  to  find  another  wife ; 
but  no  foreign  princess  would  take  a  husband  who 
had  put  away  two  wives  and  beheaded  two  more, 
and  one  Italian  lady  actually  answered  that  she 
was  much  obliged  to  him,  but  she  could  not 
venture  to  marry  him,  because  she  had  only  one 
neck. 

At  last  he  found  an  English  widow,  Lady 
Latimer,  whose  maiden  name  was  Katharine  Parr, 
and  married  her.  He  was  diseased  now,  lame  with 
gout,  and  very  large  and  fat ;  and  she  nursed  him 
kindly,  and  being  a  good-natured  woman,  persuad¬ 
ed  him  to  be  kinder  to  his  daughters,  Mary  and 
Elizabeth,  than  he  had  ever  been  since  the  disgrace 
of  their  mothers ;  and  she  did  her  best  to  keep  him 
in  good  humor,  but  he  went  on  doing  cruel  things, 
even  to  the  end  of  liis  life  :  and,  at  the  very  last, 
had  in  prison  the  very  same  Duke  of  Norfolk  who 
had  won  the  battle  of  Flodden,  and  would  have 
put  him  to  death  in  a  few  days’  time,  only  that  his 
own  death  prevented  it. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  Henry  YIII.  was  not  hated 
as  might  have  been  expected.  His  cruelties  were 
chiefly  to  the  nobles,  not  to  the  common  people : 
and  he  would  do  good-natured  things,  and  speak 
with  a  frank,  open  manner,  that  was  much  liked. 


Henry  VIII.  and  his  Wives. 


221 


England  was  prosperous,  too,  and  shopkeepers, 
farmers,  and  all  were  well  off;  there  was  plenty  of 
bread  and  meat  for  all,  and  the  foreign  nations 
were  afraid  to  go  to  war  with  us.  So  the  English 
people,  on  the  whole,  loved  “  Bluff  King  Hal,”  as 
they  called  him,  and  did  not  think  much  about  his 
many  wickednesses,  or  care  how  many  heads  he 
cut  off.  He  died  in  the  year  1547.  The  changes 
in  his  time  are  generally  called  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation. 


1 


/ 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

EDWARD  VI. 

a.d.  1547 — 1553. 

THE  little  son  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Jane  Sey¬ 
mour  of  course  reigned  after  him  as  Edward 
VI.  He  was  a.quiet,  gentle  boy,  exceedingly  fond 
of  learning  and  study,  and  there  were  great  expec¬ 
tations  of  him  ;  but,  as  he  was  only  nine  years  old. 
the  affairs  of  state  were  managed  by  his  council. 

The  chief  of  the  council  were  his  two  uncles  — 
his  mother’s  brothers,  Edward  and  Thomas  Sey¬ 
mour,  the  elder  of  whom  had  been  made  Duke  of 
Somerset  —  together  with  Archbishop  Cranmer ; 
but  it  was  not  long  before  the  duke  quarreled 
with  his  brother  Thomas,  put  him  into  the  Tower, 
and  cut  off  his  head,  so  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  sad 
days  of  Henry  VIII.  were  not  }'et  over. 

The  Duke  of  Somerset  and  Archbishop  Cranmer 

wanted  to  make  many  more  changes  in  the  Church 
222 


Edward  VI. 


223 


f  England  than  Henry  VIII.  had  ever  allowed, 
'hey  had  all  the  Prayer-book  Services  translated 
ito  English,  leaving  out  such  parts  as  they  did  not 
pprove ;  the  Lessons  were  read  from  the  English 
;ible,  and  people  were  greatly  delighted  at  being 
ble  to  worship  and  to  listen  to  God’s  Word  in 
leir  own  tongue.  The  first  day  on  which  the 
English  Prayer-hook  was  used  was  the  Whitsunday 
f  1548.  The  Bibles  were  chained  to  the  desks  as 
eing  so  precious  and  valuable  ;  and  crowds  would 
;and,  or  sit,  and  listen  for  hours  together  to  any 
ue  who  would  read  to  them,  without  caring  if  he 
rere  a  clergyman  or  not ;  and  men  who  tried  to 
xplain,  without  being  properly  taught,  often  made 
reat  mistakes. 

Indeed,  in  Germany  and  France  a  great  deal  of 
le  same  kind  had  been  going  on  for  some  time 
ast,  though  not  with  any  sort  of  leave  from  the 
ings  or  bishops,  as  there  was  in  England,  and 
ius  the  reformers  there  broke  quite  off  from  the 
hurch,  and  fancied  they  could  do  without  bishops, 
'his  great  break  was  called  the  Reformation, 
ecause  it  professed  to  set  matters  of  religion  to 
ghts ;  and  in  Germany  the  reformers  called  them- 
dves  Protestants,  because  they  protested  against 
nne  of  the  teachings  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 


224  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

Cranmer  had  at  one  time  been  in  Germany,  and 
had  made  friends  with  some  of  these  German  and 
Swiss  Protestants,  and  he  invited  them  to  England 
to  consult  and  help  him  and  his  friends.  Several 
of  them  came,  and  they  found  fault  with  our  old 
English  Prayer-book  —  though  it  had  never  been 
the  same  as  the  Roman  one  —  and  it  was  altered 
again  to  please  them  and  their  friends,  and  brought 
out  as  King  Edward’s  second  book.  Indeed,  they 
tried  to  persuade  the  English  to  be  like  themselves 
—  with  very  few  services,  no  ornaments  in  the 
churches,  and  no  bishops ;  and  things  seemed  to  be 
tending  more  and  more  to  what  they  desired,  for 
the  king  was  too  young  not  to  do  what  his  tutors 
and  governors  wished,  and  his  uncle  and  Cranmer 
were  all  on  their  side. 

However,  there  was  another  great  nobleman,  the 
Duke  of  Northumberland,  who  wanted  to  be  as 
powerful  as  the  Duke  of  Somerset.  He  was  the 
son  of  Dudley,  the  wicked  judge  under  Henry 
VII.,  who  had  made  himself  so  rich,  and  he  man¬ 
aged  to  take  advantage  of  the  people  being  discon¬ 
tented  with  Somerset  to  get  the  king  into  his  own 
hands,  accuse  Somerset  of  treason,  send  him  to  the 
Tower,  and  cut  oft  his  head 

The  king  at  this  time  was  sixteen.  He  had 


KDWAKI)  VI.  WHITING  I  IIS  JOUKNAL. 


Edward  VI. 


227 


never  been  strong,  and  he  had  learnt  and  worked 
much  more  than  was  good  for  him.  He  wrote  a 
journal,  and  though  he  never  sajrs  he  grieved  for 
his  uncles,  most  likely  he  did,  for  he  had  few  near 
him  who  really  loved  or  cared  for  him,  and  he  was 
fast  falling  into  a  decline,  so  that  it  became  quite 
plain  that  he  was  not  likely  ever  to  he  a  grown-up 
king.  There  was  a  great  difficulty  as  to  who  was 
to  reign  after  him.  The  natural  person  would 
have  been  his  eldest  sister,  Mary,  but  King  Henry 
lad  forbidden  her  and  Elizabeth  to  be  spoken  of 
is  princesses  or  heiresses  of  the  crown ;  and,  be- 
;ides,  Mary  held  so  firmly  to  the  Church,  as  she 
tad  learnt  to  believe  in  it  in  her  youth,  that  the 
eformers  knew  she  would  undo  all  their  work. 
There  was  a  little  Scottish  girl,  also  named  Mary 
-the  grand-daughter  of  Margaret,  eldest  daughter 
i  Henry  VII.  Poor  child,  she  had  been  a  queen 
om  babyhood,  for  her  father  had  died  of  grief 
hen  she  was  but  a  week  old ;  and  there  had  been 
me  notion  of  marrying  her  to  King  Edward,  and 
:  ending  the  wars,  but  the  Scots  did  not  like  this, 

;  d  sent  her  away  to  be  married  to  the  Dauphin, 
i'an^ois,  eldest  son  of  the  king  of  France.  If 
1  Iward’s  sisters  were  not  to  reign,  she  came  next ; 
It  the  English  would  not  have  borne  to  be  joined 


228  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 


on  to  the  French;  and  there  were  the  grand¬ 
daughters  of  Mary,  that  other  sister  of  Henry 
VIII.,  who  were  thorough  Englishwomen.  Ladv 
Jane  Grey,  the  eldest  of  them,  was  a  good,  sweet, 
pious,  and  diligent  girl  of  fifteen,  wonderfully 
learned.  But  it  was  not  for  that  reason,  only  for 
the  sake  of  the  royal  blood,  that  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  asked  her  in  marriage  for  his  son, 
Guildford  Dudley.  When  the}-  were  married,  the 
duke  and  Cranmer  began  to  persuade  the  poor, 
sick,  young  king  that  it  was  his  duty  to  leave  hi? 
crown  away  from  his  sister  Mary  to  Lady  Jane 
who  would  go  on  with  the  Reformation,  whil< 
Mary  would  try  to  overthrow  it.  In  truth,  youns 
Edward  had  no  right  to  will  away  the  crown ;  bu 
he  was  only  sixteen,  and  could  only  trust  to  wha 
the  archbishop  and  his  council  told  him  So  h 
signed  the  parchment  they  brought  him,  and  afte 
that  he  quickly  grew  worse. 

The  people  grew  afraid  that  Northumberlan 
was  shutting  him  up  and  misusing  him,  and  om 
he  came  to  the  window  of  his  palace  and  look* 
out  at  them,  to  show  he  was  alive;  but  he  dit 
only  a  fortnight  later,  and  we  cannot  guess  wk 
he  would  have  been  when  he  was  grown  up. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MARY  I. 

A.D.  1553—1558. 

rHE  Duke  of  Northumberland  kept  king 
Edward’s  death  a  secret  till  he  had  pro- 
laimed  Jane  queen  of  England.  The  poor  girl 
new  that  a  great  wrong  was  being  done  in  her 
ame.  She  wept  bitterly,  and  begged  that  she 
light  not  be  forced  to  accept  the  crown ;  but  she 
229 


230  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

could  do  nothing  to  prevent  it,  when  her  father 
and  husband,  and  his  father,  all  were  bent  on 
making  her  obey  them ;  and  so  she  had  to  sit  as  a 
queen  in  the  royal  apartments  in  the  Tower  of 
London. 

But  as  soon  as  the  news  reached  Mary,  she  set 
off  riding  towards  London  ;  and,  as  everyone  knew 
her  to  be  the  right  queen,  and  no  one  would  he 
tricked  by  Dudley,  the  whole  of  the  people  joined 
her,  and  even  Northumberland  was  obliged  to 
throw  up  his  hat  and  cry  “  God  save  Queen  Mary.” 
Jane  and  her  husband  were  safely  kept,  but  Mary 
meant  no  harm  by  them  if  their  friends  would  have 
been  quiet.  However,  the  people  became  discon¬ 
tented  when  Mary  began  to  have  the  Latin  service 
used  again,  and  put  Archbishop  Cranmer  in  prison 
for  having  favored  Jane.  She  showed  in  every 
way  that  she  thought  all  her  brothers  adviser's  had 
done  very  wrong.  She  wanted  to  be  under  the 
Pope  again,  and  she  engaged  herself  to  marry  the 
King  of  Spain,  her  cousin,  Philip  II.  This  was 
very  foolish  of  her,  for  she  was  a  middle-aged 
woman,  pale,  and  low-spirited ;  and  he  was  much 
younger,  and  of  a  silent,  gloomy  temper,  so  that 
everyone  was  afraid  of  him.  All  her  best  friends 
advised  her  not,  and  the  English  hated  the  notion 


Mary  I. 


233 


so  much,  that  the  little  children  played  at  the 
queen's  wedding  in  their  games,  and  always  ended 
by  pretending  to  hang  the  King  of  Spain.  North¬ 
umberland  thought  this  discontent  gave  another 
chance  for  his  plan,  and  tried  to  raise  the  people  in 
favor  of  Jane ;  but  so  few  joined  him  that  Mary 
very  soon  put  them  down,  and  beheaded  North¬ 
umberland.  She  thought,  too,  that  the  quiet  of 
the  country  would  never  be  secure  while  Jane 
lived,  and  so  she  consented  to  her  being  put  to 
death.  Jane  behaved  with  beautiful  firmness  and 
patience.  Her  husband  was  led  out  first  and 
beheaded,  and  then  she  followed.  She  was  most 
good  and  innocent  in  herself,  and  it  was  for  the 
faults  of  others  that  she  suffered.  Mary’s  sister, 
Elizabeth,  was  suspected,  and  sent  to  the  Tower. 
She  came  in  a  boat  on  the  Thames  to  the  Traitor’s 
Gate ;  but,  when  she  found  where  she  was,  she  sat 
down  on  the  stone  steps,  and  said,  “  This  is  a  place 
for  traitors,  and  I  am  none.”  After  a  time  she 
was  allowed  to  live  in  the  country,  but  closely 
watched. 

Philip  of  Spain  came  and  was  married  to  Mary. 
She  was  very  fond  of  him,  but  he  was  not  very 
kind  to  her,  and  he  had  too  much  to  do  in  his  other 
kingdoms  to  spend  much  time  with  her,  so  that  she 


234  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


was  always  pining  after  him.  Her  great  wish  in 
choosing  him  was  to  be  helped  in  bringing  the 
country  back  to  the  old  obedience  to  the  Pope ; 
and  she  succeeded  in  having  the  English  Church 
reconciled,  and  received  again  to  communion  with 
Rome.  The  new  service  she  would  under  no  con¬ 
sideration  have  established  in  her  house.  This 
displeased  many  of  her  subjects  exceedingly. 
They  thought  they  should  be  forbidden  to  read  the 
Bible  —  they  could  not  endure  the  Latin  service  — 
and  those  who  had  been  taught  by  the  foreigners 
fancied  that  all  proper  reverence  and  beauty  in 
church  was  a  sort  of  idolatry.  Some  fled  away 
into  Holland  and  Germany,  and  others,  who  staid, 
and  taught  loudly  against  the  doctrines  that  were 
to  be  brought  back  again,  were  seized  and  thrown 
into  prison. 

Those  bishops  who  had  been  foremost  in  the 
changes  of  course  were  the  first  to  be  tried  for 
their  teaching.  The  punishment  was  the  dreadful 
one  of  being  burnt  alive,  chained  to  a  stake. 
Bishop  Hooper  died  in  this  way  at  Gloucester,  and 
Bishop  Ridley  and  Bishop  Latimer  were  both 
burnt  at  the  same  time  at  Oxford,  encouraging  one 
another  to  die  bravely  as  martyrs  for  the  truth,  as 
they  held  it.  Cranmer  was  in  prison  already  for 


Mary  I. 


235 


supporting  Jane  Grey,  and  he  was  condemned  to 
death ;  but  he  was  led  to  expect  that  he  would  be 
spared  the  fire  if  he  would  allow  that  the  old  faith, 
as  Rome  held  it,  was  the  right  one.  Paper  after 
paper  was  brought,  such  as  would  please  the  queen 
and  his  judges,  and  lie  signed  them  all ;  but  after 
all,  it  turned  out  that  none  would  do,  and  that  he 
was  to  be  burnt  in  spite  of  them.  Then  he  felt 
what  a  base  part  he  had  acted,  and  was  ashamed 
when  he  thought  how  bravely  his  brethren  had 
died  on  the  same  spot :  and  when  he  was  chained 
to  the  stake  and  the  fire  lighted,  he  held  his  right 
liand  over  the  flame  to  be  burnt  first,  because  it 
had  signed  what  he  did  not  really  believe,  and  he 
ried  out,  “This  unworthy  hand  !  ” 

Altogether,  about  three  hundred  people  were 
mint  in  Queen  Mary's  reign  for  denying  one  or 
ither  of  the  doctrines  that  the  Pope  thought  the 
,’ight  ones.  It  was  a  terrible  time  ;  and  the  queen, 
.vho  had  only  longed  to  do  right  and  restore  her 
country  to  the  Church,  found  herself  hated  and 
lisliked  by  everyone.  Even  the  Pope,  who  had  a 
[uarrel  with  her  husband,  did  not  treat  her  warmly ; 
tnd  the  nobles,  who  had  taken  possession  of  the 
ibbey  lands,  were  determined  never  to  let  her 
■estore  them.  Tier  husband  did  not  love  her,  or 


236  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


like  England.  However,  lie  persuaded  her  to  help 
him  in  a  war  with  the  French,  with  which  England 
ought  to  have  had  nothing  to  do,  and  the  conse¬ 
quence  was  that  a  brave  French  duke  took  the  city 
of  Calais,  the  very  last  possession  of  the  English  in 
France.  Mary  was  so  exceedingly  grieved,  that 
she  said  that  when  she  died  the  name  of  Calais 
would  be  found  written  on  her  heart. 

She  was  already  ill,  and  there  was  a  bad  fever  at 
the  time,  of  which  many  of  those  she  most  loved 
and  trusted  had  fallen  sick.  She  died,  in  1558,  a 
melancholy  and  sorrowful  woman,  after  reigning 
only  five  years. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


ELIZABETH. 


A.  i).  1558 — 1587. 


\  LL  through  Queen  Mary’s  time,  her  sister 
-  Elizabeth,  Anne  Boleyn’s  daughter,  had 
een  in  trouble.  Those  who  held  by  Queen  Mary, 
nd  maintained  Henry’s  first  marriage,  said  that 
is  wedding  with  Anne  was  no  real  one,  and  so 
lat  Elizabeth  ought  not  to  reign  ;  but  then  there 
as  no  one  else  to  take  in  her  stead,  except  the 
237 


238  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


young  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland,  wife  to  the  French 
dauphin.  All  who  wished  for  the  Reformation, 
and  dreaded  Mary’s  persecutions  had  hoped  to  see 
Elizabeth  queen,  and  this  had  made  Mary  much 
afraid  of  her ;  and  she  was  so  closely  watched  and 
guarded  that  once  she  even  said  she  wished  she 
was  a  milkmaid,  to  be  left  in  peace.  While  she 
had  been  in  the  Tower  she  had  made  friends  with 
another  prisoner,  Robert  Dudley,  brother  to  th( 
husband  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  she  continued  t< 
like  him  better  than  any  other  person  as  long  a: 
he  lived. 

When  Mary  died,  Elizabeth  was  twenty-five,  aiw 
the  English  were  mostly  willing  to  have  her  for  thei 
queen.  She  had  read,  thought,  and  learnt  a  grea 
deal ;  and  she  took  care  to  have  the  advice  of  Avis 
men,  especially  of  the  great  Thomas  Cecil,  whor. 
she  made  Lord  Burleigh,  and  kept  as  her  ad\rise 
as  long  as  he  lived.  She  did  not  always  follow 
even  his  advice,  however;  but,  whenever  she  clit 
it  was  the  better  for  her.  She  knew  Robe) 
Dudley  was  not  wise,  so,  though  she  was  so  fou 
of  him,  she  never  let  him  manage  her  affairs  ft 
her.  She  would  have  Vished  to  marry  him,  hi 
she  knew  her  subjects  Avould  think  this  disgracefu 
so  she  only  made  him  Earl  of  Leicester:  and  he 


Elizabeth. 


239 


liking  for  him  prevented  her  from  ever  bringing 
herself  to  accept  any  of  the  foreign  princes  who 
were  always  making  proposals  to  her.  Unfortu¬ 
nately  he  was  not  a  good  man,  and  did  not  make  a 
good  use  of  her  favor,  and  he  was  much  disliked 
by  all  the  queen’s  best  friends. 

She  was  very  fond  of  making  stately  journeys 
through  the  country.  All  the  poor  people  ran  to 
see  her  and  admire  her ;  but  the  noblemen  who  had 
to  entertain  her  were  almost  ruined,  she  brought 
so  many  people  who  ate  so  much,  and  she  expected 
such  presents.  These  journeys  were  called  Pro¬ 
gresses.  The  most  famous  was  to  Lord  Leicester’s 
castle  of  Kenilworth,  but  he  could  quite  afford  it. 
He  kept  the  clock’s  hands  at  twelve  o'clock  all  the 
time,  that  it  might  always  seem  to  be  dinner  time ! 

Elizabeth  wanted  to  keep  the  English  Church  a 
pure  and  true  branch  of  the  Church,  free  of  the 
mistakes  that  had  crept  in  before  her  father’s  time. 
So  she  restored  the  English  Prayer-book,  and  can¬ 
celled  all  that  Mary  had  done;  the  people  ‘who  had 
gone  into  exile  returned,  and  all  the  Protestants 
abroad  reckoned  her  as  on  their  side.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Pope  woidd  not  regard  her  as 
queen  at  all,  and  cut  her  and  her  country  off  from 
the  Church,  while  Mary  of  Scotland  and  her 


240  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

husband  called  themselves  the  true  queen  and  king 
of  England ;  and  such  of  the  English  as  believed 
the  Pope  to  have  the  first  right  over  the  Church, 
held  with  him  and  Mary  of  Scotland.  They  were 
called  Roman  Catholics,  while  Elizabeth  and  her 
friends  were  the  real  Catholics,  for  they  held  with 
the  Church  Universal  of  old:  and  it  was  the  Pope 
who  had  broken  off  with  them  for  not  accepting  liis 
doctrines,  not  they  with  the  Pope.  The  English 
who  had  lived  abroad  in  Mary’s  time  wanted  to 
have  much  more  altered,  and  to  have  churches  and 
services  much  less  beautiful  and  more  plain  than 
they  were.  But  Elizabeth  never  would  consent  to 
this ;  and  these  people  called  themselves  Puritans, 
and  continued  to  object  to  the  Episcopal  form  of 
worship. 

Mary  of  Scotland  was  two  years  queen  of  France, 
and  then  her  husband  died,  and  she  had  to  come 
back  to  Scotland.  There  most  of  the  people  had 
taken  up  doctrines  that  made  them  hate  the 
sight  of  the  clergy  and  services  she  had  brought 
home  from  France;  they  called  her  an  idolater,  and 
would  hardly  bear  that  she  should  hear  the  old 
service  in  her  own  chapel.  She  was  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  charming  women  who  ever 
lived,  and  if  she  had  been  as  true  and  good  as  she 


MAKY,  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


I 


Elizabeth. 


243 


was  lovely,  nobody  could  have  done  more  good ; 
but  the  court  of  France  at  that  time  was  a  wicked 
place,  and  she  had  learnt  much  of  the  "wickedness. 
She  married  a  young  nobleman  named  Henry 
Stuart,  a  cousin  of  her  own,  but  he  turned  out 
foolish,  selfish,  and  head-strong,  and  made  her 
miserable ;  indeed,  he  helped  to  kill  her  secretary 
in  her  own  bedroom  before  her  eyes.  She  hated 
him  so  much  at  last,  that  there  is  only  too  much 
reason  to  fear  that  she  knew  of  the  plot,  laid  by 
some  of  her  lords,  to  blow  the  poor  man’s  house  up 
with  gunpowder,  while  he  lay  in  his  bed  ill  of 
smallpox.  At  any  rate,  she  very  soon  married  one 
of  the  very  worst  of  the  nobles  who  had  committed 
the  murder.  Her  subjects  could  not  bear  this,  and 
they  rose  against  her  and  made  her  prisoner,  while 
her  husband  fled  the  country  They  shut  her  up 
in  a  castle  in  the  middle  of  a  lake,  and  obliged  her 
to  give  up  her  crown  to  her  little  son,  James  YI. 
—  a  baby  not  a  year  old.  However,  her  sweet 
words  persuaded  a  boy  who  waited  on  her  to  steal 
the  keys,  and  row  her  across  the  lake,  and  she  was 
soon  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  her  Roman 
Catholic  subjects.  They  were  defeated,  however, 
and  she  found  no  place  safe  for  her  in  Scotland,  so 
she  fled  across  the  Border  to  England.  Queen 


244  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

Elizabeth  hardly  knew  what  to  do.  She  believed 
that  Mary  had  really  had  to  do  with  Henry 
Stuart’s  death,  but  she  could  not  bear  to  make 
such  a  crime  known  in  a  cousin  and  queen ;  and 
what  made  it  all  more  difficult  to  judge  was,  that 
the  kings  of  France  and  Spain,  and  all  the  Roman 
Catholics  at  home,  thought  Mary  ought  to  be  queen 
instead  of  Elizabeth,  and  she  might  have  been  set 
up  against  England  if  she  had  gone  abroad,  or 
been  left  at  large,  while  in  Scotland  she  would 
have  been  murdered.  The  end  of  it  was,  that 
Elizabeth  kept  her  shut  up  in  different  castles. 
There  she  managed  to  interest  the  English  Roman 
Catholics  in  her,  and  get  them  to  lay  plots,  winch 
always  were  found  out.  Then  the  nobles  were  put  to 
death,  and  Mary  was  more  closely  watched.  This 
went  on  for  nineteen  years,  and  at  last  a  worse  plot 
than  all  was  found  out  —  for  actually  killing  Queen 
Elizabeth.  Her  servants  did  not  act  honorably,  for 
when  they  found  out  what  was  going  on  they 
pretended  not  to  know,  so  that  Mary  might  go  on 
writing  worse  and  worse  things,  and  then,  at  last, 
the  whole  was  made  known.  Mary  was  tried  and 
sentenced  to  death,  but  Elizabeth  was  a  long  time 
making  up  her  mind  to  sign  the  order  for  her 


Elizabeth. 


245 


execution,  and  at  last  punished  the  clerks  who  sent 
it  off,  as  if  it  had  been  their  fault. 

So  Queen  Mary  of  Scotland  was  beheaded  at 
Fotheringay  Castle,  showing  much  bravery  and 
piety.  There  are  many  people  who  still  believe 
that  she  was  really  innocent  of  all  that  she  was 
accused  of,  and  that  she  only  was  ruined  by  the 
plots  that  were  laid  against  her. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

ELIZABETH’  S  REIGN. 
a.d.  15S7— 1002. 

"XT O  reign  ever  was  more  glorious  or  better  for 
-L  ^  the  people  than  Queen  Elizabeth’s.  It  was 
a  time  when  there  were  many  very  great  men 
living  —  soldiers,  sailors,  writers,  poets  —  and  they 
all  loved  and  looked  up  to  the  queen  as  the  mother 
of  her  country.  There  really  was  nothing  she  did 
246 


Elizabeth's  Reign. 


247 


love  like  the  good  of  her  people,  and  somehow  they 
all  felt  and  knew  it,  and  “  Good  Queen  Bess  ”  had 
their  hearts  —  though  she  was  not  always  right, 
and  had  some  very  serious  faults. 

The  worst  of  her  faults  was  not  telling  truth. 
Somehow  kings  and  rulers  had,  at  that  time,  learnt 
to  believe  that  when  they  were  dealing  with  other 
countries  anything  was  fair,  and  that  it  was  not 
wrong  to  tell  falsehoods  to  hide  a  secret,  nor  to 
make  promises  they  never  meant  to  keep.  People 
used  to  do  so  who  would  never  have  told  a  lie  on 
their  own  account  to  their  neighbor,  and  Lord 
Burleigh  and  Queen  Elizabeth  did  so  very  often, 
and  often  behaved  meanly  and  shabbily  to  people 
who  had  trusted  to  their  promises.  Her  other 
fault  was  vanity.  She  was  a  little  woman,  with 
bright  eyes,  and  rather  hooked  nose,  and  sandy 
hair,  but  she  managed  to  look  every  inch  a  queen, 
and  her  eye,  when  displeased,  was  like  a  lion’s. 
She  had  really  been  in  love  with  Lord  Leicester, 
and  every  now  and  then  he  hoped  she  would  marr}' 
him ;  indeed,  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  he  had  Iris 
wife  secretly  killed,  in  order  that  he  might  be  able 
to  wed  the  queen ;  but  she  saw  that  the  people 
woiild  not  allow  her  to  do  so,  and  gave  it  up.  But 
she  liked  to  be  courted.  She  allowed  foreign 


248  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

princes  to  send  her  their  portraits,  rings,  and 
jewels,  and  sometimes  to  come  and  see  her,  but  she 
never  made  up  her  mind  to  take  them.  And  as  to 
the  gentlemen  at  her  own  court,  she  liked  them  to 
make  the  most  absurd  and  ridiculous  compliments 
to  her,  calling  her  their  sun  and  goddess,  and  her 
hair  golden  beams  of  the  morning,  and  the  like ; 
and  the  older  she  grew  the  more  of  these  fine 
speeches  she  required  of  them.  Her  dress  —  a 
huge  hoop,  a  tall  ruff  all  over  lace,  and  jewels  in 
the  utmost  profusion  —  was  as  splendid  as  it  could 
be  made,  and  in  wonderful  variety.  She  is  said  to 
have  had  three  hundred  gowns  and  thirty  wigs. 
Lord  Burleigh  said  of  her  that  she  was  sometimes 
more  than  a  man,  and  sometimes  less  than  a  woman. 
And  so  she  was,  when  she  did  not  like  her  ladies  to 
wear  handsome  dresses. 

One  of  the  people  who  had  wanted  to  marry  her 
was  her  brother-in-law,  Philip  of  Spain,  but  she  was 
far  too  wise,  and  he  and  she  were  bitter  enemies  all 
the  rest  of  their  lives.  His  subjects  in  Holland  had 
become  Protestants,  and  he  persecuted  them  so 
harshly  that  they  broke  away  from  him.  They 
wanted  Elizabeth  to  be  their  queen,  but  she  would 
not,  though  she  sent  Lord  Leicester  to  help  them 
with  an  army.  With  him  went  his  nephew,  Sir 


Elizabeth's  Reign. 


249 


Philip  Sj'dney,  the  most  good,  and  learned,  and 
graceful  gentleman  at  court.  There  was  great 
grief  when  Sir  Philip  was  struck  by  a  cannon  ball 
in  the  thigh,  and  died  after  nine  days  pain.  It 
was  as  he  was  being  carried  from  the  field,  faint 
and  thirsty,  that  some  one  had  just  brought  him  a 
cup  of  water,  when  he  saw  a  poor  soldier,  worse 
hurt  than  liimself,  looking  at  it  with  longing  eyes. 
He  put  it  from  him  untasted,  and  said,  “  Take  it, 
thy  necessity  is  greater  than  mine.” 

After  the  execution  of  Mary  of  Scotland,  Philip 
of  Spain  resolved  to  punish  Elizabeth  and  the 
English,  and  force  them  back  to  obedience  to  the 
pope.  Pie  fitted  out  an  immense  fleet,  and  filled 
it  with  fighting  men.  So  strong  was  it  that,  as 
armada  is  the  Spanish  for  a  fleet,  it  was  called  the 
Invincible  Armada.  It  sailed  for  England,  the 
men  expecting  to  burn  and  ruin  all  before  them. 
But  the  English  ships  were  ready.  Little  as  they 
were,  they  hunted  and  tormented  the  big  Spaniards 
all  the  way  up  the  English  Channel;  and,  just  as 
the  Armada  had  passed  the  Straits  of  Dover,  there 
came  on  such  dreadful  storms  that  the  ships  were 
driven  and  broken  before  it,  and  wrecked  all  round 
the  coasts  —  even  in  Scotland  and  Ireland  —  and 
very  few  ever  reached  home  again.  The  English 


250  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

felt  that  God  had  protected  them  with  His  wind 
and  storm,  and  had  fought  for  them. 

Lord  Leicester  died  not  long  after,  and  the 
queen  became  almost  equally  fond  of  his  stepson, 
the  Earl  of  Essex,  who  was  a  brave,  high-spirited 
young  man,  only  too  proud. 

The  sailors  of  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time  were  some 
of  the  bravest  and  most  skilful  that  ever  lived. 
Sir  Francis  Drake  sailed  round  the  world  in  the 
good  ship  Pelican,  and  when  he  brought  her  into 
the  Thames  the  queen  went  to  look  at  her.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  was  another  great  sailor,  and  a 
most  courtly  gentleman  besides.  He  took  out  the 
first  English  settlers  to  North  America,  and  named 
their  new  home  Virginia  —  after  the  virgin  queen 
—  and  he  brought  home  from  South  America  our 
good  friend  the  potato  root ;  and,  also,  he  learnt 
there  to  smoke  tobacco.  The  first  time  his  servant 
saw  this  done  in  England,  he  thought  his  master 
must  be  on  fire,  and  threw  a  bucket  of  water  over 
him  to  put  it  out. 

The  queen  valued  these  brave  men  much,  hut 
she  liked  none  so  well  as  Lord  Essex,  till  at  last  he 
displeased  her,  and  she  sent  him  to  govern  Ireland. 
There  he  fell  into  difficulties,  and  she  wrote  angry 
letters,  which  made  him  think  his  enemies  were 


Elizabeth' s  Reign. 


251 


setting  her  against  him.  So  he  came  back  without 
leave ;  and.  one  morning  came  straight  into  her 
dressing  chamber,  where  she  was  sitting,  with  her 
thin  grey  hair  being  combed,  before  she  put  on  one 
of  her  thirty  wigs,  or  painted  her  face.  She  was 
very  angry,  and  would  not  forgive  him,  and  he  got 
into  a  rage,  too ;  and  she  heard  he  had  said  she 
was  an  old  woman,  crooked  in  temper  as  in  person. 
What  was  far  worse,  he  raised  the  Londoners  to 
break  out  in  a  tumult  to  uphold  him.  He  was 
taken  and  sent  to  the  Tower,  tried  for  treason,  and 
found  guilty  of  death.  But  the  queen  still  loved 
him,  and  waited  and  waited  for  some  message  or 
token  to  ask  her  pardon.  None  came,  and  she 
thought  he  was  too  proud  to  beg  for  mercy.  She 
signed  the  death  warrant,  and  Essex  died  on  the 
block.  But  soon  she  found  that  he  had  really  sent 
a  ring  she  once  had  given  him,  to  a  lady  who  was 
to  show  it  to  her,  in  token  that  he  craved  her 
pardon.  The  ring  had  been  taken  by  mistake  to  a 
cruel  lady  who  hated  him,  and  kept  it  back.  But 
by-and-bv  this  lady  was  sick  to  death.  Then  she 
repented,  and  sent  for  the  queen  and  gave  her  the 
ring,  and  confessed  her  wickedness.  Poor  Queen 
Elizabeth  —  her  very  heart  was  broken.  She  said 
to  the  dying  woman,  “  God  may  forgive  you,  but  I 


252  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

cannot.”  Slie  saicl  little  more  after  that.  She 
was  old,  and  her  strength  failed  her.  Day  after 
day  she  sat  on  a  pile  of  cushions,  with  her  finger 
on  her  lip,  still  growing  weaker,  and  begging  for 
the  prayers  the  archbishop  read  her.  And  thus, 
she  who  had  once  been  so  great  and  spirited,  sank 
into  death,  when  seventy  years  old,  in  the 
year  1602. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


JAMES  I. 


a.d.  1002 — 1625. 


AFTER  Queen  Elizabeth’s  death,  the  next 
heir  was  James,  the  son  of  Mary  of  Scot- 
and  and  of  Henry  Stuart.  He  was  the  sixth 
lames  who  had  been  king  of  Scotland,  and  had 
eianed  there  ever  since  his  mother  had  been  driven 

O 

iway.  He  had  been  brought  up  very  strictly  by 
he  Scottish  Reformers,  who  had  made  him  very 
earned,  and  kept  him  under  great  restraint ; 
md  all  that  he  had  undergone  had  tended  to  make 
i im  very  awkward  and  strange  in  his  manners. 
Ie  was  very  timid,  and  could  not  bear  to  see  a 
Irawn  sword ;  and  he  was  so  much  afraid  of  being 
nurdered,  that  he  used  to  wear  a  dress  padded  and 
tufted  out  all  over  with  wool,  which  made  him 
ook  even  more  clumsy  than  he  was  by  nature. 

258 


254  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

The  English  did  not  much  admire  their  new 
king,  though  it  really  was  a  great  blessing  that 
England  and  Scotland  should  be  under  the  same 
king  at  last,  so  as  to  end  all  the  long  and  bloody 
wars  that  had  gone  on  for  so  many  years.  Still, 
the  Puritans  thought  that,  as  James  had  been 
brought  up  in  their  way  of  thinking,  they  would 
be  allowed  to  make  all  the  changes  that  Queen 
Elizabeth  had  stopped ;  and  the  Roman  Catholics 
recollected  that  he  was  Queen  Mary’s  son,  and 
that  his  Reformed  tutors  had  not  made  his  life 
very  pleasant  to  him  as  a  boy,  so  they  had  hopes 
from  him. 

But  they  both  were  wrong.  James  had  really 
read  and  thought  much,  and  was  a  much  wiser 
man  at  the  bottom  than  anyone  would  have 
thought  who  had  seen  his  disagreeable  ways,  and 
heard  his  silly'  way  of  talking.  He  thought  the 
English  Church  was  much  more  in  the  right  than 
either  of  them,  and  he  onlyr  wished  that  things 
should  go  on  the  same  in  England,  and  that  the 
Scots  should  be  brought  to  have  bishops,  and  to 
use  the  prayers  that  Christians  had  used  from  the 
very  old  times,  instead  of  each  minister  praying 
out  of  his  own  head,  as  had  become  the  custom. 
But  though  he  could  not  change  the  ways  of  the 


James  I. 


255 


Scots  at  once,  he  caused  all  the  best  scholars  and 
clergymen  in  his  kingdom  to  go  to  work  to  make 
the  translation  of  the  Bible  as  right  and  good  as  it 
could  be. 

Long  before  this  was  finished,  however,  some  of 
the  Roman  Catholics  had  formed  a  conspiracy  for 
getting  rid  of  all  the  chief  people  in  the  kingdom ; 
and  so,  as  they  hoped,  bringing  the  rest  back  to 
the  pope.  There  were  good  men  among  the 
Roman  Catholics  who  knew  such  an  act  would  be 
horrible ;  but  there  were  some  among  them  who 
had  learnt  to  hate  everyone  that  they  did  not 
reckon  as  of  the  right  religion,  and  to  believe  that 
everything  was  right  that  was  done  for  the  cause 
of  their  Church.  So  these  men  agreed  that  on  the 
day  of  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  when  the  king, 
with  the  queen  and  Prince  of  Wales,  would  all  be 
meeting  the  lords  and  commons,  they  would  blow 
the  whole  of  them  up  with  gunpowder ;  and,  while 
the  country  was  all  in  confusion,  the  king  dead, 
and  almost  all  his  lords  and  the  chief  country 
squires,  they  would  take  the  king’s  younger  chil¬ 
dren —  Elizabeth  or  Charles,  who  were  both  quite 
little  —  and  bring  one  up  as  a  Roman  Catholic  to 
govern  England. 

They  hired  some  cellars  under  the  Houses  of 


256  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


Parliament,  and  stored  them  with  barrels  of  gun¬ 
powder,  hidden  by  faggots ;  and  the  time  was 
nearly  come,  when  one  of  the  lords  called 
Monteagle,  received  a  letter  that  puzzled  him  very 
much,  advising  him  not  to  attend  the  meeting  of 
Parliament,  since  a  sudden  destruction,  would 
come  upon  all  who  would  there  be  present,  and 
yet  so  that  they  would  not  know  the  doer  of  it. 
No  one  knows  who  wrote  the  letter,  but  most 
likely  it  was  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  been 
asked  to  join  in  the  plot,  and,  though  he  would  not 
betray  his  friends,  could  not  bear  that  Lord 
Monteagle  should  perish.  Lord  Monteagle  took 
the  letter  to  the  council,  and  there,  after  puzzling 
over  it  and  wondering  if  it  were  a  joke,  the  king 
said  gunpowder  was  a  means  of  sudden  destruc¬ 
tion  ;  and  it  was  agreed  that,  at  any  rate,  it  would 
be  safer  to  look  into  the  vaults.  A  party  was  sent 
to  search,  and  there  they  found  all  the  powder 
ready  prepared,  and,  moreover,  a  man  with  a 
lantern,  one  Guy  Fawkes,  who  had  undertaken  to 
be  the  one  to  set  fire  to  the  train  of  gunpowder, 
hoping  to  escape  before  the  explosion.  However, 
he  was  seized  in  time,  and  was  forced  to  make 
confession.  Most  of  the  gentlemen  concerned  fled 
into  the  country,  and  shut  themselves  up  in  a 


-  - 

B 

\uM 

ite1 

JS1L 

fSISlSi  j 

§1 

^i§If 

1 1'  p  1'  J  ill 

THE  GUNPOWDER  PLOT  DISCOVERED. 


James  I. 


259 


fortified  house ;  but  there,  strange  to  say,  a  barrel 
of  gunpowder  chanced  to  get  lighted,  and  thus 
many  were  much  hurt  in  the  very  way  they  had 
meant  to  hurt  others. 

There  was  a  great  thanksgiving  all  over  the 
country,  and  it  became  the  custom  that,  on  the 
5th  of  November  —  the  day  when  the  gunpowder 
plot  was  to  have  taken  effect  —  there  should  be 
bonfires  and  fireworks,  and  Guy  Fawkes’  figure 
burnt,  but  people  are  getting  wiser  now,  and  think 
it  better  not  to  keep  up  the  memory  of  old  crimes 
and  hatreds. 

Henry,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  a  fine  lad,  fond  of 
all  that  was  good,  but  a  little  too  apt  to  talk  of 
wars,  and  of  being  like  Henry  V.  He  was  very 
fond  of  ships  and  sailors,  and  delighted  in  watching 
the  building  of  a  grand  vessel  that  was  to  take  his 
sister  Elizabeth  across  the  sea,  when  she  was  to 
marry  the  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine.  Before 
the  wedding,  however,  Prince  Henry  fell  suddenly 
ill  and  died. 

King  James  was  as  fond  of  favorites  as  ever 
Elizabeth  had  been,  though  not  of  the  same 
persons.  One  of  the  worst  things  he  ever  did  was 
the  keeping  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  the  Tower  for 
many  years,  and  at  last  cutting  off  his  head.  It 


260  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

was  asserted  that  Sir  Walter  had  tried,  when  first 
James  came,  to  set  up  a  lady  named  Arabella 
Stuart  to  be  queen  ;  but  if  lie  was  to  be  punished 
for  that,  it  ought  to  have  been  directly,  instead  of 
keeping  the  sentence  hanging  over  his  head  for 
years.  The  truth  was  that  Sir  Walter  had  been  a 
great  enemy  to  the  Spaniards,  and  James  wanted 
to  please  them,  for  he  wished  his  son  Charles  to 
marry  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Spain.  Charles 
wanted  to  see  her  first,  and  set  off  for  Spain,  in 
disguise,  with  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  was 
his  friend,  and  his  father’s  greatest  favorite.  But 
when  he  reached  Madrid,  he  found  that  the 
princesses  were  not  allowed  to  speak  to  any  gentle¬ 
man,  nor  to  show  their  faces ;  and  though  he 
climbed  over  a  wall  to  speak  to  her  when  she  was 
walking  in  the  garden,  an  attendant  begged  him  to 
go  away,  or  all  her  train  would  be  punished. 
Charles  went  back  disappointed,  and,  on  his  way 
through  Paris,  saw  Henrietta  Maria,  the  bright¬ 
eyed  sister  of  the  King  of  France,  and  set  his  heart 
on  marrying  her. 

Before  this  was  settled,  however,  King  James 
was  seized  with  an  ague  and  died,  in  the  year  1625. 
He  was  the  first  king  of  the  family  of  Stuart,  and 
a  very  strange  person  he  was  —  wonderfully 


James  I. 


261 


learned  and  exceedingly  conceited;  indeed,  lie 
liked  nothing  better  than  to  be  called  the  English 
Solomon.  The  worst  of  him  was  that,  like  Eliza¬ 
beth,  he  thought  kings  and  rulers  might  tell 
falsehoods  and  deceive.  He  called  this  kingcraft, 
and  took  this  very  bad  sort  of  cunning  for  wisdom. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

CHARLES  I. 

A.  d.  1625—1649. 

SO  many  of  the  great  nobles  had  been  killed  in 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  that  the  barons  had 
lost  all  that  great  strength  and  power  they  had 
gained  when  they  made  King  John  sign  Magna 
Carta.  The  kings  got  the  power-  instead ;  and  all 
through  the  reigns'  of  the  five  Tudors,  the  sov¬ 
ereign  had  very  little  to  hinder  him  from  doing 
exactly  as  he  pleased.  But,  in  the  meantime,  the 
country  squires  and  the  great  merchants  who  sat 
in  the  House  of  Commons  had  been  getting 
richer  and  stronger,  and  read  and  thought  more. 
As  long  as  Queen  Elizabeth  lived  they  were 
contented,  for  they  loved  her  and  were  proud  of 
her,  and  she  knew  how  to  manage  them.  She 

scolded  them  sometimes,  but  when  she  saw  that 
262 


Charles  1. 


263 


she  was  really  vexing  them  she  always  changed, 
and  she  had  smiles  and  good  words  for  them,  so 
that  she  could  really  do  what  she  pleased  with 
them. 

But  James  I.  was  a  disagreeable  man  to  have  to 
do  with ;  and,  instead  of  trying  to  please  them,  he 
talked  a  great  deal  about  his  own  power  as  a  king, 
and  how  they  ought  to  obey  him  ;  so  that  they  were 
angered,  and  began  to  read  the  laws,  and  wonder 
how  much  power  properly  belonged  to  him.  Now, 
when  he  died,  his  son  Charles  was  a  much 
pleasanter  person;  he  was  a  gentleman  in  all  his 
looks  and  ways,  and  had  none  of  his  father’s 
awkward,  ungainly  tricks  and  habits.  He  was 
good  and  earnest,  too,  and  there  was  nothing  to 
take  offence  at  in  himself ;  so  for  some  years  all 
went  on  quietly,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a  great 
improvement.  But  several  tilings  were  against 
him.  His  friend,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  was  a 
proud,  selfish  man,  who  affronted  almost  everyone, 
and  made  a  bad  use  of  the  king’s  favor ;  and  the 
people  were  also  vexed  that  the  king  should  marry 
a  Roman  Catholic  princess,  Henrietta  Maria,  who 
would  not  go  to  church  with  him,  nor  even  let  her¬ 
self  be  crowned  by  an  English  archbishop. 

You  heard  that,  in  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time,  there 


264  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

were  Puritans  who  would  have  liked  to  have  the 
Prayer-book  much  more  altered,  and  who  fancied 
that  every  pious  rule  of  old  times  must  be  wrong. 
They  did  not  like  the  cross  in  baptism,  nor  the  ring 
in  marriage ;  and  they  could  nor  bear  to  see  a 
clergyman  in  a  siu-plice.  In  many  churches  they 
took  then'  own  way,  and  did  just  as  they  pleased. 
But  under  James  and  Charles  matters  changed. 
Dr.  Laud,  whom  Charles  had  made  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  had  all  the  churches  visited,  and 
insisted  on  the  parishioners  setting  them  in  order ; 
and  if  a  clergyman  would  not  wear  a  surplice,  nor 
make  a  cross  on  the  baptized  child’s  forehead,  nor 
obey  the  other  laws  of  the  Prayer-book,  he  was 
punished. 

The  Puritans  were  greatly  displeased.  They 
fancied  the  king  and  Dr.  Laud  wanted  to  make 
them  all  Roman  Catholics  again  ;  and  a  great  many 
so  hated  these  Church  rules,  that  they  took  ship 
and  went  off  to  North  America  to  found  a  colony, 
where  they  might  set  up  their  own  religion  as  they 
liked  it.  Those  who  staid  continued  to  murmur 
and  struggle  against  Laud. 

There  was  another  great  matter  of  displeasure, 
and  that  was  the  way  in  which  the  king  raised 
money.  The  right  way  is  that  he  should  call  his 


Charles  I 


265 


Parliament  together,  and  the  House  of  Commons 
should  grant  him  what  he  wanted.  But  there 
were  other  means.  One  was  that  every  place  in 
England  should  he  called  on  to  pay  so  much  for 
ship  money.  This  had  begun  when  King  Alfred 
raised  his  fleet  to  keep  off  the  Danes;  but  it  had 
come  not  to  be  spent  on  ships  at  all,  hut  only  to  he 
money  for  the  king  to  use.  Another  way  that  the 
kings  had  of  getting  money  was  from  fines. 
People  who  committed  some  small  offence,  that  did 
not  come  under  the  regular  laws,  were  brought 
before  the  Council  in  a  room  at  Westminster,  that 
had  a  ceiling  painted  Avith  stars  —  and  so  was 
called  the  Star  Chamber  —  and  there  were  sen¬ 
tenced,  sometimes  to  pay  heavy  sums  of  money, 
sometimes  to  have  their  ears  cut  off.  This  Court 
of  the  Star  Chamber  had  been  begun  in  the  days  of 
Henry  VII.,  and.  it  is  only  a  wonder  that  the 
English  had  borne  it  so  long. 

One  thing  Charles  I.  did  that  pleased  his  people, 
and  that  was  sending  help  to  the  French  Prot¬ 
estants,  who  were  having  their  town  of  Rochelle 
besieged.  But  the  English  were  not  pleased  that 
the  command  of  the  army  was  given  to  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  his  proud,  insolent  favorite.  But 
Buckingham  never  went.  As  he  was  going  to 


266  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

embark  at  Portsmouth,  he  was  stabbed  to  the 
heart  by  a  man  named  Felton;  nobody  clearly 
knows  why. 

Charles  did  not  get  on  much  better  even  when  : 
Buckingham  was  dead.  Whenever  he  called  a 
Parliament,  fault  was  always  found  with  him  and 
with  the  laws.  Then  he  tried  to  do  without  a 
Parliament ;  and,  as  he,  of  course,  needed  money,  • 
the  calls  for  ship  money  came  oftener,  and  the 
fines  in  the  Star  Chamber  became  heavier,  and 
more  cases  for  them  were  hunted  out.  Then  mur¬ 
murs  arose.  Just  then,  too,  he  and  Archbishop 
Laud  were  trying  to  make  the  Scots  return  to  the 
Church,  by  giving  them  bishops  and  a  Prayer-book. 
But  the  first  time  the  Service  was  read  in  a  church 
at  Edinburgh,  a  fishwoman,  named  Jenny  Geddes, 
jumped  up  in  a  rage  and  threw  a  three-legged  stool 
at  the  clergyman’s  head.  Some  Scots  fancied  they 
were  being  brought  back  to  Rome ;  others  hated 
whatever  was  commanded  in  England.  All  these 
leagued  together,  and  raised  an  army  to  resist  the 
king;  and  he  was  obliged  to  call  a  Parliament  once 
more,  to  get  money  enough  to  resist  them. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

A.T).  1641—1649. 

WHEN  Charles  I.  was  obliged  to  call  his  Par¬ 
liament,  the  House  of  Commons  met, 
angered  at  the  length  of  time  that  had  passed  since 
they  had  been  called,  and  determined  to  use  their 
opportunity.  They  speedily  put  an  end  both  to 
the  payment  of  ship  money  and  to  the  Court  of  the 
Star  Chamber ;  and  they  threw  into  prison  the  two 
among  the  king's  friends  whom  they  most  disliked, 
namely,  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  Earl  of  Strafford. 
The  earl  had  been  governor  of  Ireland,  and  had 
kept  great  order  there,  but  severely ;  and  he 
thought  that  the  king  was  the  only  person  who 
ought  to  have  any  power,  and  was  always  advising 
the  king  to  put  down  all  resistance  by  the  strong 


270  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

hand.  He  was  thought  a  hard  man,  and  very 
much  hated ;  and  when  he  was  tried  the  Houses  of 
Parliament  gave  sentence  against  him  that  he 
should  be  beheaded.  Still,  this  could  not  be  done 
without  the  king’s  warrant;  and  Charles  at  first 
stood  out  against  giving  up  his  faithful  friend. 
But  there  was  a  great  tumult,  and  the  queen  and 
her  mother  grew  frightened,  and  entreated  the 
king  to  save  himself  by  giving  up  Lord  Strafford, 
until  at  last  he  consented,  and  signed  the  paper 
ordering  the  execution.  It  was  a  sad  act  of  weak¬ 
ness  and  cowardice,  and  he  mourned  over  it  all  the 
days  of  his  life. 

The  Parliament  only  asked  more  and  more,  and 
at  last  the  king  thought  he  must  put  a  check  on 
them.  So  he  resolved  to  go  down  to  the  House  and 
cause  the  five  members  who  spoke  most  against  his 
power  to  be  taken  prisoners  in  his  own  presence. 
But  he  told  his  wife  what  he  intended,  and 
Henrietta  Maria  was  so  foolish  as  to  tell  Lady 
Carlisle,  one  of  her  ladies,  and  she  sent  warning  to 
the  five  gentlemen,  so  that  they  were  not  in  the  House 
when  Charles  arrived ;  and  the  Londoners  rose  up 
in  a  great  mob,  and  showed  themselves  so  angry 
with  him,  that  he  took  the  queen  and  his  children 
away  into  the  country.  The  queen  took  her 


QUEEN  HKNKIETTA  MAI: I  \ 


The  Long  Parliament. 


273 


daughter  Mary  to  Holland  to  marry  the  Prince  of 
Orange;  and  there  she  bought  muskets  and  gun¬ 
powder  for  her  husband’s  army  —  for  tilings  had 
come  to  such  a  pass  now  that  a  civil  war  began. 
A  civil  war  is  the  worst  of  all  wars,  for  it  is  one 
between  the  people  of  the  same  country.  England 
had  had  two  civil  wars  before.  There  were  the 
Barons’  wars,  between  Henry  III.  and  Simon  de 
Montfort,  about  the  keeping  of  Magna  Carta ;  and 
there  were  the  wars  of  the  Roses,  to  settle  whether 
York  or  Lancaster  should  reign.  This  war  be¬ 
tween  Charles  I.  and  the  Parliament  was  to  decide 
whether  the  king  or  the  House  of  Commons  should 
be  most  powerful.  Those  who  held  with  the  king 
called  themselves  Cavaliers,  but  the  friends  of  the 
Parliament  called  them  Malignants ;  and  they  in 
turn  nicknamed  the  Parliamentary  party  Round- 
heads,  because  they  often  chose  not  to  wear  their 
hair  in  the  prevailing  fashion,  long  and  flowing  on 
their  shoulders,  but  cut  short  round  their  heads. 
Most  of  the  Roundheads  were  Puritans,  and  hated 
the  Prayer-book,  and  all  the  strict  rules  for  relig¬ 
ious  worship  that  Archbishop  Laud  had  brought 
in ;  and  the  Cavaliers,  on  the  other  hand,  held  by 
the  bishops  and  the  Prayer-book.  Some  of  the 
Cavaliers  were  very  good  men  indeed,  and  led  holy 


274  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

and  Christian  lives,  like  their  master  the  king,  but 
there  were  others  who  were  only  hold,  dashing 
men,  careless  and  full  of  mirth  and  mischief ;  and 
the  Puritans  were  apt  to  think  all  amusements  and 
pleasures  wrong,  so  that  they  made  out  the  Cava¬ 
liers  worse  than  they  really  were. 

I  do  not  think  you  would  understand  about  all 
the  battles,  so  I  shall  only  tell  you  now  that  the 
king’s  army  was  chiefly  led  by  his  nephew,  Prince 
Rupert,  the  son  of  his  sister  Elizabeth.  Rupert 
was  a  fiery,  brave  young  man,  who  was  apt  to 
think  a  battle  was  won  before  it  really  was,  and 
would  ride  after  the  people  he  had  beaten  himself 
without  waiting  to  see  whether  his  help  was 
wanted  by  the  other  captains ;  and  so  he  did  Iris 
uncle’s  cause  as  much  harm  as  good. 

The  king’s  party  had  been  tlie  most  used  to  war, 
and  they  prospered  the  most  at  first;  but  as  the 
soldiers  of  the  Parliament  became  more  trained, 
they  gained  the  advantage.  One  of  the  members 
of  Parliament,  a  gentleman  named  Oliver  Crom¬ 
well,  soon  shewed  himself  to  be  a  much  better 
captain  than  any  one  else  in  England,  and  from  the 
time  he  came  to  the  chief  command  the  Parliament 
always  had  the  victory.  The  places  of  the  three 
chief  battles  were  Edgehill,  Marston  Moor,  and 


The  Long  Parliament. 


275 


Naseby.  The  first  was  doubtful,  but  the  other  two 
were  great  victories  of  the  Roundheads.  J ust  after 
Marston  Moor,  the  Parliament  put  to  death  Arch¬ 
bishop  Laud ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  they  forbade 
the  use  of  the  Prayer-book,  and  turned  out  all  the 
parish  priests  from  the  churches,  putting  in  their 
stead  men  chosen  after  their  own  fashion,  and  not 
ordained  by  bishops.  They  likewise  destroyed  all 
they  disliked  in  the  churches  —  the  painted  glass, 
the  organs,  and  the  carvings;  and  when  the 
Puritan  soldiers  took  possession  of  a  town  or 
village,  they  would  stable  their  horses  in  the 
churches,  use  the  font  for  a  trough,  and  shoot  at 
the  windows  as  marks. 

After  the  battle  of  Naseby,  King  Charles  was  in 
such  distress  that  he  thought  he  would  go  to  the 
Scots,  remembering  that,  though  he  had  offended 
them  by  trying  to  make  them  use  the  Prayer-book, 
he  had  been  born  among  them,  and  he  thought 
they  would  prefer  him  to  the  English.  Rut  when 
he  came,  the  Scottish  army  treated  him  like  a 
prisoner,  and  showed  him  very  few  honors ;  and  at 
last  they  gave  him  up  to  the  English  Parliament 
for  a  great  sum  of  money. 

So  Charles  was  a  prisoner  to  his  own  subjects. 


276  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


This  Parliament  is  called  the  Long  Parliament  <■ 
because  it  sat  longer  than  any  other  Parliamen 
ever  did :  indeed  it  had  passed  a  resolution  that  i  ,  I 
could  not  be  dissolved. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

DEATH  OF  CHARLES  I. 
a.d  1649—1651. 

The  l  ong  Parliament  did  not  wish  to  have  no 
king,  only  to  make  him  do  what  they 
pleased;  and  then  went  on  trying  whether  he 
would  come  back  to  reign  according  to  their 
notions.  He  would  have  given  up  a  great  deal, 
but  when  they  wanted  him  to  declare  that  there 


277 


278  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

should  be  no  bishops  in  England  he  would  never 
consent,  for  he  thought  there  could  be  no  real 
Church  without  bishops,  as  our  Lord  himself  had  J 
appointed. 

At  last,  after  there  had  been  much  debating,  and  i 
it  was  plain  that  it  would  never  come  to  an  end, 
Oliver  Cromwell  sent  some  of  his  officers  to  take  ' 
King  Charles  into  their  hands,  instead  of  the 
persons  appointed  by  Parliament.  So  the  king  I 
was  prisoner  to  the  army  instead  of  to  the 
Parliament. 

Cromwell  was  a  very  able  man,  and  he  saw  that 
nobody  could  settle  the  difficulties  about  the  law 
and  the  rights  of  the  people  but  himself.  He  saw 
that  things  never  would  be  settled  while  the  king 
lived,  nor  by  the  Parliament,  so  he  sent  one  of  his 
officers,  named  Pryde,  to  turn  out  all  the  members 
of  Parliament  who  would  not  do  his  will,  and  then 
the  fifty  who  were  left  appointed  a  court  of  officers 
and  lawyers  to  try  the  king.  Charles  was  brought 
before  them  ;  but,  as  they  had  no  right  to  try  him, 
he  would  not  say  a  word  in  answer  to  them. 
Nevertheless,  they  sentenced  him  to  have  his  head 
cut  off.  He  had  borne  all  his  troubles  in  the  most 
meek  and  patient  way,  forgiving  all  his  enemies 
and  praying  for  them  :  and  he  was  ready  to  die  in 


Death  of  Charles  I. 


281 


the  same  temper.  His  queen  was  in  France,  and 
all  his  children  were  safe  out  of  England,  except 
his  daughter  Elizabeth,  who  was  twelve  years  old, 
and  little  Henry,  who  was  five.  They  were 
brought  to  Whitehall  Palace  for  him  to  see  the 
night  before  he  was  to  die.  He  took  the  little  boy 
on  his  knee,  and  talked  a  long  time  to  Elizabeth, 
telling  her  what  books  to  read  and  giving  her  his 
messages  to  her  mother  and  brothers ;  and  then  he 
told  little  Henry  to  mark  what  he  said,  and  to 
mind  that  he  must  never  be  set  up  as  a  king  while 
his  elder  brothers,  Charles  and  James  were  alive. 
The  little  boy  said  through  his  tears,  “  I  will  be 
torn  in  pieces  first.”  His  father  kissed  and  blessed 
the  two  children,  and  left  them. 

The  next  day  was  the  30th  of  January,  1649. 
The  king  was  allowed  to  have  Bishop  Juxon  to 
read  and  pray  with  him,  and  to  give  him  the  holy 
communion.  After  that,  forgiving  his  enemies,  and 
praying  for  them,  he  was  led  to  the  Banqueting 
House  at  Whitehall,  and  out  through  a  window, 
on  to  a  scaffold  hung  with  black  cloth.  He  said 
his  last  prayers,  and  the  executioner  cut  off  his 
head  with  one  blow,  and  held  it  up  to  the  people. 
He  was  buried  at  night,  —  a  light  snow  falling  at 
the  time,  —  in  St.  George’s  Chapel  at  Windsor,  by 


282  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

four  faithful  noblemen,  but  they  were- not  allowed 
to  use  an}’  service  over  his  grave. 

The  Scots  were  so  much  shocked  to  find  what 
their  selling  of  their  king  had  come  to,  that  they 
invited  his  eldest  son,  Charles,  a  young  man  of 
nineteen,  to  come  and  reign  over  them,  and  offered 
to  set  him  on  the  English  throne  again.  Young 
Charles  came  ;  but  they  were  so  strict  that  they 
made  his  life  very  dull  and  weary,  since  they  saw 
sin  in  every  amusement.  However,  they  kept 
their  promise  of  marching  into  England,  and  some 
of  the  English  cavaliers  joined  them ;  but  Oliver 
Cromwell  and  his  army  met  them  at  Worcester, 
and  they  were  entirely  beaten.  Young  King 
Charles  had  to  go  away  with  a  few  gentlemen,  and 
he  was  so  closely  followed  that  they  had  to  put  him 
in  charge  of  some  woodmen  named  Penderel,  who 
lived  in  Boscobel  Forest.  They  dressed  him  in  a 
rough  leather  suit  like  their  own,  and  when  the 
Roundhead  soldiers  came  to  search,  he  was  hidden 
among  the  branches  of  an  oak  tree  above  their 
heads.  Afterwards,  a  lady  named  Jane  Lane 
helped  him  over  another  part  of  his  journey,  by 
letting  him  ride  on  horseback  before  her  as  her  ser¬ 
vant  ;  but,  when  she  stopped  at  an  inn,  he  was  very 
near  being  found  out,  because  he  did  not  know 


EXECUTION  OK  KINO  CHARLES. 


Death  of  Charles  I. 


285 


how  to  turn  the  spit  in  the  kitchen  when  the  cook 
asked  him.  However,  he  got  safely  to  Brighton, 
which  was  only  a  little  village  then,  and  a  boat 
took  him  to  France,  where  his  mother  was  living. 

In  the  meantime,  his  young  sister  and  brother, 
Elizabeth  and  Henry,  had  been  sent  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  to  Carisbrook  Castle.  Elizabeth  was  pin¬ 
ing  away  with  sorrow,  and  before  long  she  was 
found  dead,  with  her  cheek  resting  on  her  open 
Bible.  After  this,  little  Henry  was  sent  to  be  with 
his  mother  in  France. 

The  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  had  been  married 
just  as  the  war  began  to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who 
lived  in  Holland,  and  was  left  a  widow  with  one 
little  son.  James,  Duke  of  York,  the  second 
brother,  had  at  first  been  in  the  keeping  of  a  Par¬ 
liamentary  nobleman,  with  his  brother  and  sister, 
in  London ;  but,  during  a  game  of  hide-and-seek, 
he  crept  out  of  the  gardens  and  met  some  friends, 
who  dressed  him  in  girls  clothes  and  took  him  to  a 
ship  in  the  Thames,  which  carried  him  to  Holland. 
Little  Henrietta,  the  youngest,  had  been  left,  when 
only  six  weeks  old,  to  the  care  of  one  of  her 
mother’s  ladies.  When  she  was  nearly  three,  the 
lady  did  not  think  it  safe  to  keep  her  any  longer 
in  England.  So  she  stained  her  face  and  hands* 


286  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


brown,  with  walnut  juice,  to  look  like  a  gipsy,  took 
the  child  upon  her  back,  and  trudged  to  the 
coast. 

Little  Henrietta  could  not  speak  plain,  but  she 
always  called  herself  by  a  name  she  meant  to  be 
princess,  and  the  lady  was  obliged  to  call  her  Piers, 
and  pretend  that  she  was  a  little  boy,  when  the 
poor  child  grew  angry  at  being  treated  so  differ¬ 
ently  from  usual,  and  did  all  she  possibly  could  to 
make  the  strangers  understand  that  she  was  no 
beggar  boy.  However,  at  last  she  was  safe  across 
the  sea,  and  was  with  her  mother  at  Paris,  where 
the  king  of  France,  Queen  Henrietta’s  nephew, 
was  very  kind  to  the  poor  exiles.  The  misfortune 
was,  that  the  queen  brought  up  little  Henrietta  as 
a  Roman  Catholic,  and  tried  to  make  Henry  one 
also;  but  he  was  old  enough  to  be  firm  to  his 
father’s  Church,  and  he  went  away  to  his  sister  in 
Holland.  Janies,  however,  did  somewhat  later  be¬ 
come  a  Roman  Catholic ;  and  Charles  would  have 
been  one,  if  he  had  cared  enough  about  religion  to 
do  what  would  have  lessened  his  chance  of  getting 
back  to  England  as  king.  But  these  two  brothers 
were  learning  no  good  at  Paris,  and  were  growing 
careless  of  the  right  and  fond  of  pleasure.  James 
and  Henry,  after  a  time,  joined  the  French  army, 


Death  of  Charles  I. 


287 


that  they  might  learn  the  art  of  war.  They  were 
both  very  brave,  but  it  was  sad  that  when  France 
and  England  went  to  war,  they  should  be  in  the 
army  of  the  enemies  of  their  country. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 


OLIVER  CROMWELL. 

A.D.  1G49— 1660. 

OLIVER  Cromwell  felt,  as  lias  been  said,  that 
there  was  no  one  who  could  set  matters  to 
rights  as  he  could  in  England.  He  had  shewn 
that  the  country  could  not  do  without  him,  if  it 
was  to  go  on  without  the  old  government.  Xot 
only  had  he  conquered  and  slain  Charles  I.,  and 
beaten  that  king’s  friends  and  those  of  his  son  in 
Scotland,  but  he  had  put  down  a  terrible  rising  of 
the  Irish,  and  suppressed  them  with  much  more 
cruelty  than  he  generally  showed. 

He  found  that  the  old  Long  Parliament  did 
nothing  but  blunder  and  talk,  so  he  marched  into 
the  House  one  day  with  a  company  of  soldiers,  and 
sterniy  ordered  the  members  all  off,  calling  out,  as 

he  pointed  to  the  mace  that  lay  before  the  Speaker's 
288 


CROMWELL  DISMISSING  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 


Oliver  Cromwell. 


291 


chair,  “  Take  away  that  bauble.”  After  that  he 
called  together  a  fresh  Parliament ;  but  there  were- 
very  few  members,  and  those  only  men  who  would 
do  as  he  bade  them.  The  Speaker  was  a  leather- 
seller  named  Barebones,  so  that  this  is  generally 
known  as  Barebones’  Parliament.  By  these  people 
he  was  named  Lord  Protector  of  England  ;  and  as 
his  soldiers  would  still  do  anything  for  him,  he 
reigned  for  five  years,  just  as  a  king  might  have 
done,  and  a  good  king  too. 

He  was  by  no  means  a  cruel  or  unmerciful  man, 
and  he  did  not  persecute  the  Cavaliers  more  than 
he  could  help,  if  he  was  to  keep  up  his  power; 
though,  of  course,  they  suffered  a  great  deal,  since 
they  had  fines  laid  upon  them,  and  some  forfeited 
their  estates  for  having  resisted  the  Parliament. 
Many  had  to  live  in  Holland  or  France,  because 
there  was  no  safety  for  them  in  England,  and  their 
wives  went  backwards  and  forwards  to  their  homes 
to  collect  their  rents,  and  obtain  something  to  live 
upon.  The  bishops  and  clergy  had  all  been  driven 
out,  and  in  no  church  was  it  allowable  to  use  the 
Prayer-book ;  so  there  used  to  be  secret  meetings 
in  rooms,  or  vaults^  or  in  woods,  where  the  prayers 
could  be  used  as  of  old,  and  the  holy  sacrament 
administered. 


292  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


For  five  years  Cromwell  was  Lord  Protector, 
but  in  the  year  1658  be  died,  advising  that  bis  son 
Richard  should  be  chosen  Protector  in  his  stead. 
Richard  Cromwell  was  a  kind,  amiable  gentleman, 
but  not  clever  or  strong  like  his  father,  and  he 
very  soon  found  that  to  govern  England  was  quite 
beyond  his  power ;  so  he  gave  up,  and  went  to  live 
at  his  own  home  again,  while  the  English  people 
gave  him  the  nick-name  of  Tumble-down-Dick. 


No  one  seemed  well  to  know  what  was  to  be 
done  next ;  but  General  Monk,  who  was  now  at  J 
the  head  of  the  army,  thought  the  best  thing  j 
possible  would  be  to  bring  back  the  king.  A  new 
Parliament  was  elected,  and  sent  an  invitation  to  ; 
Charles  II.  to  come  back  again  and  reign  like  his 
forefathers.  He  accepted  it ;  the  fleet  was  sent  to 
fetch  him,  and  on  the  29th  of  May,  1660,  he  rode 
into  London  between  his  brothers,  James  and 
Hemy.  The  streets  were  dressed  with  green 
boughs,  the  windows  hung  with  tapestry,  and 
everyone  shewed  such  intense  joy  and  delight,  that 
the  king  said  he  could  not  think  why  he  should 
have  stayed  away  so  long,  since  everyone  was  so 
glad  to  see  him  back  again. 

But  the  joy  of  his  return  was  clouded  by  the 
deaths  of  his  sister  Mary,  the  Princess  of  Orange, 


PORTRAIT  OP  MONK 


Oliver  Cromwell. 


295 


and  of  his  brother  Henry,  who  was  only  just 
twenty.  Mary  left  a  son,  William,  Prince  of 
Orange,  of  whom  you  will  hear  more. 

The  bishops  were  restored,  and,  as  there  had 
been  no  archbishop  since  Laud  had  been  beheaded, 
good  Juxon,  who  had  attended  King  Charles  at  his 
death,  was  made  archbishop  in  his  room.  The 
persons  who  had  been  put  into  the  parishes  to  act 
as  clergymen,  were  obliged  to  give  place  to  the 
real  original  parish  priest ;  but  if  he  were  dead,  as 
was  often  the  case,  they  were  told  that  they  might 
stay,  if  they  would  be  ordained  by  the  bishops  and 
obey  the  Prayer-book.  Some  did  so,  some  made 
an  arrangement  for  keeping  the  parsonages,  and 
paying  a  curate  to  take  the  service  in  church ;  but 
those  who  were  the  most  really  in  earnest  gave  up 
everything,  and  were  turned  out  —  but  only  as 
they  had  turned  out  the  former  clergymen  ten  or 
twelve  years  before. 

All  Oliver  Cromwell’s  army  was  broken  up,  and 
the  men  sent  to  their  homes,  except  one  regiment 
which  came  from  Coldstream  in  Scotland.  These 
would  not  disband,  and  when  Charles  II.  heard  it 
he  said  he  would  take  them  as  his  guards.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  there  being  always  a  regular 
army  of  men,  whose  whole  business  it  is  to  be 


296  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


soldiers,  instead  of  any  man  being  called  from  his 
work  when  he  is  wanted. 

Charles  II.  promised  pardon  to  all  the  rebels, 
but  he  did  try  and  execute  all  who  had  been 
actually  concerned  in  condemning  his  father  to 
death. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

CHARLES  H. 

a.d.  1(360 — 1685. 

IT  is  sad  to  have  to  say  that,  after  all  his 
troubles,  Charles  II.  disappointed  everybody. 
Some  of  these  disappointments  could  not  he  helped, 
but  others  were  his  own  fault.  The  Puritan  party 
thought,  after  they  had  brought  liun  home  again 
he  should  have  been  more  favorable  to  them,  and 


297 


298  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


grumbled  at  the  restoration  of  tlie  clergymen  and 
of  the  Prayer-book.  The  Cavaliers  thought  that, 
after  all  they  had  gone  through  for  him  and  his 
father,  he  ought  to  have  rewarded  them  more ;  but 
he  said  truly  enough,  that  if  he  had  made  a  noble¬ 
man  of  everyone  who  had  deserved  well  of  him,  no 
place  bx:t  Salisbury  Plain  would  have  been  big 
enough  for  the  House  of  Lords  to  meet  upon. 
Then  those  gentlemen  who  had  got  into  debt  to 
raise  soldiers  for  the  king’s  service,  and  had  paid 
fines,  or  had  to  sell  their  estates,  felt  it  hard  not  to 
have  them  again ;  but  when  a  Roundhead  gentle¬ 
man  had  honestly  bought  the  property,  it  would 
have  been  still  more  unjust  to  turn  them  out. 
These  two  old  names  of  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads 
began  to  turn  into  two  others  even  more  absurd. 
The  Cavalier  set  came  to  be  called  Tories,  an  Irish 
name  for  a  robber,  and  the  Puritans  got  the  Scotch 
name  of  Whigs,  which  means  buttermilk. 

It  would  have  taken  a  very  strong,  wise,  and 
good  man  to  deal  rightly  with  two  such  different 
sets  of  people ;  but  though  Charles  II.  was  a  very 
clever  man,  he  was  neither  wise  nor  good.  He 
could  not  bear  to  vex  himself,  nor  anybody  else ; 
and,  rather  than  be  teased,  would  grant  almost 
anything  that  was  asked  of  him.  He  was  so  bright 


Charles  H. 


299 


and  lively,  and  made  such  droll,  good-natured 
answers,  that  everyone  liked  him  who  came  near 
him ;  but  lie  had  no  steady  principle,  only  to  stand 
easy  with  everybody,  and  keep  as  much  power  for 
himself  as  he  could  without  giving  offence.  He 
loved  pleasure  much  better  than  duty,  and  kept 
about  him  a  set  of  people  who  amused  him,  but 
were  a  disgrace  to  his  court.  They  even  took 
money  from  the  French  king  to  persuade  Charles 
against  helping  the  Dutch  in  their  war  against  the 
French.  The  Dutch  went  to  war  with  the  English 
upon  this,  and  there  were  many  terrible  sea-fights, 
in  which  James,  Duke  of  York,  the  king’s  brother, 
shewed  himself  a  good  and  brave  sailor. 

The  year  1665  is  remembered  as  that  in  which 
there  was  a  dreadful  sickness  in  London,  called  the 
plague.  People  died  of  it  often  after  a  very  short 
illness,  and  it  was  so  infectious  that  it  was  difficult 
to  escape  it.  When  a  person  in  a  house  was  found 
to  have  it,  the  door  was  fastened  up  and  marked 
with  a  red  cross  in  chalk,  and  no  one  was  allowed 
to  go  out  or  in ;  food  was  set  down  outside  to  be 
fetched  in,  and  carts  came  round  to  take  away 
the  dead,  who  were  all  buried  together  in  long 
ditches.  The  plague  was  worst  in  the  summer  and 
autumn;  as  winter  came  on  more  recovered  and 


300  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


fewer  sickened,  and  at  last  this  frightful  sickness 
was  ended ;  and  by  God’s  good  mercy,  it  has  never 
since  that  year  come  to  London. 

The  next  year,  1666,  there  was  a  fire  in  London, 
wliich  burnt  down  whole  streets,  with  their 
churches,  and  even  destroyed  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral. 
Perhaps  it  did  good  by  burning  down  the  dirty  old 
houses  and  narrow  streets  where  the  plague  might 
have  lingered,  but  it  was  a  fearful  misfortune.  It 
was  only  stopped  at  last  by  blowing  up  a  space 
with  gunpowder  all  round  it,  so  that  the  flames 
might  have  no  way  to  pass  on.  The  king  and  liis 
brother  came  and  were  very  helpful  in  giving 
orders  about  this,  and  in  finding  shelter  for  many 
poor,  homeless  people. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  disturbance  in  Scotland 
when  the  king  wanted  to  bring  back  the  bishops 
and  the  Prayer-book.  Many  of  the  Scots  would 
not  go  to  church,  and  met  on  hills  and  moors  to 
have  their  prayers  in  their  own  way.  Soldiers 
were  sent  to  disperse  them,  and  there  was  much 
fierce,  bitter  feeling.  Archbishop  Sharpe  was 
dragged  out  of  his  carriage  and  killed,  and  then 
there  was  a  civil  war,  in  which  the  king’s  men  pre¬ 
vailed;  but  the  Whigs  were  harshly  treated,  and 
there  was  great  discontent. 


Charles  II. 


303 


The  country  was  much  troubled  because  the  king 
and  queen  had  no  children:  and  the  Duke  of  York 
was  a  Roman  Catholic.  A  strange  story  was  got 
up  that  there  was  what  was  called  a  popish  plot  for 
killing  the  king,  and  putting  James  on  the  throne. 
Charles  himself  laughed  at  it,  for  he  knew  every¬ 
one  liked  him  and  disliked  his  brother:  “No  one 
would  kill  me  to  make  you  king,  James,”  he  said ; 
but  in  his  easy,  selfish  way,  when  he  found  that  all 
the  country  believed  in  it,  and  wanted  to  have  the 
men  they  fancied  guilty  put  to  death,  he  did  not 
try  to  save  their  lives. 

Soon  after  this  false  plot,  there  was  a  real  one 
called  the  Rye-house  Plot.  Long  ago,  the  king- 
had  pretended  to  marry  a  girl  named  Lucy  Waters 
and  they  had  a  son  whom  he  had  made  Duke  of 
Monmouth,  but  who  could  not  reign  because  there 
had  been  no  right  marriage.  However,  Lord 
Russell  and  some  other  gentlemen,  who  ought  to 
have  known  better,  so  hated  the  idea  of  the  Duke 
of  York  being  king,  that  they  joined  in  the  Rye- 
house  Plot  for  killing  the  duke,  and  forcing  the 
king  to  make  Monmouth  his  heir.  Some  of  the 
more  unprincipled  sort,  who  had  joined  them,  even 
meant  to  shoot  Charles  and  James  both  together, 
on  the  way  to  the  Newmarket  races.  However, 


•°>04  Younf)  Folks’  History  of  England. 

tlie  plot  was  found  out,  and  the  leaders  were  put 
to  death.  Lord  Russell’s  wife,  Lady  Rachel,  sat 
by  him  all  the  time  of  his  trial,  and  was  his  great 
comfort  to  the  last.  Monmouth  was  pardoned,  but 
fled  away  into  Holland. 

The  best  thing  to  be  said  of  Charles  II.  was  that 
he  made  good  men  bishops,  and  he  never  was  angry 
when  they  spoke  out  boldly  about  his  wicked  ways  ; 
but  then,  he  never  tried  to  leave  them  off,  and  he 
spent  the  very  last  Sunday  of  his  life  among  his 
bad  companions,  playing  at  cards  and  listening  to 
idle  songs.  Just  after  this  came  a  stroke  of  apo¬ 
plexy,  and,  while  he  lay  dying  on  his  bed,  he  sent 
for  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  and  was  received  into 
the  Church  of  Rome,  in  which  he  had  really 
believed  most  of  his  life  —  though  he  had  never 
dared  to  own  it,  for  fear  of  losing  his  crown.  So, 
as  he  was  living  a  lie,  of  course  the  fruits  showed 
themselves  in  his  selfish,  wasted  life. 

It  was  in  this  reign  that  two  grand  books  were 
written.  John  Milton,  a  blind  scholar  and  poet, 
who,  before  he  lost  his  sight,  had  been  Oliver 
Cromwell’s  secretary,  wrote  his  Paradise  Lost,  or 
rather  dictated  it  to  his  daughters;  and  John 
Bunyan,  a  tinker,  who  had  been  a  Puritan 
preacher,  wrote  the  Pilgrim’s  Progress. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 


JAMES  II. 


a.d.  1685—1688. 


JAMES  II.  had,  at  least,  been  honest  in  openly 
joining  the  Church  in  which  he  believed  ;  but 
the  people  disliked  and  distrusted  him,  and  he  had 
not  the  graces  of  his  brother  to  gain  their  hearts 
with,  but  was  grave,  sad,  and  stern. 

The  Duke  of  Monmouth  came  across  from 
305 


306  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


Holland,  and  was  proclaimed  king  in  his  uncle’s 
stead  at  Exeter.  Many  people  in  the  West  of 
England  joined  him,  and  at  Taunton,  in  Somerset¬ 
shire,  he  was  received  hy  rows  of  little  girls  stand¬ 
ing  by  the  gate  in  white  frocks,  strewing  flowers 
before  him.  But  at  Sedgemoor  he  was  met  by  the 
army,  and  his  friends  were  routed  ;  he  himself  fled 
away,  and  at  last  was  caught  hiding  in  a  ditch, 
dressed  in  a  laborer’s  smock  frock,  and  with  his 
pockets  full  of  peas  from  the  fields.  He  was  taken 
to  London,  tried,  and  executed.  He  did  not 
deserve  much  pity,  hut  James  ought  not  to  have 
let  the  people  who  had  favored  him  be  cruelly 
treated.  Sir  George  Jeffreys,  the  chief  justice,  was 
sent  to  try  all  who  had  been  concerned,  from  Win¬ 
chester  to  Exeter ;  and  he  hung  so  many,  and 
treated  all  so  savagely,  that  his  progress  was  called 
the  Bloody  Assize.  Even  the  poor  little  maids  at 
Taunton  were  thrown  into  a  horrible,  dirty  jail,  and 
only  released  on  their  parents  paying  a  heavy  sum 
of  money  for  them. 

This  was  a  had  beginning  for  James’s  reign ;  and 
the  English  grew  more  angry  and  suspicious  when 
they  saw  that  he  favored  Roman  Catholics  more 
than  anyone  else,  and  even  put  them  into  places 
that  only  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England 


James  II. 


309 


could  fill.  Then  he  put  forth  a  decree,  declaring 
that  a  person  might  be  chosen  to  any  office  in  the 
State,  whether  he  were  a  member  of  the  English 
Church  or  no;  and  he  commanded  that  every 
clergyman  should  read  it  from  his  pulpit  on  Sunday 
mornings.  Archbishop  Sancroft  did  not  think  it  a 
right  thing  for  clergymen  to  read,  and  he  and  six 
more  bishops  presented  a  petition  to  the  king 
against  being  obliged  to  read  it.  One  of  these  was 
Thomas  Ken,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  who 
wrote  the  morning  hymn,  “  Awake,  my  soul,  and 
with  the  sun,”  and  the  evening  hymn,  “  All  praise 
to  Thee,  my  God,  this  night.”  Instead  of  listening 
to  their  petition,  the  king  had  all  the  seven  bishops 
sent  to  the  Tower,  and  tried  for  libel  —  that  is,  for 
malicious  writing.  All  England  was  full  of 
anxiety,  and  when  at  last  the  jury  gave  the  verdict 
of  “not  guilty,”  the  whole  of  London  rang  with 
shouts  of  joy,  and  the  soldiers  in  their  camp 
shouted  still  louder. 

This  might  have  been  a  warning  to  the  king ;  for 
he  had  thought  that,  as  he  paid  the  army,  they 
were  all  on  his  side,  and  would  make  the  people 
bear  whatever  he  pleased.  The  chief  comfort  peo¬ 
ple  had  was  in  thinking  their  troubles  would  only 
last  during  his  reign :  for  his  first  wife,  an  English- 


310  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

woman,  had  only  left  him  two  daughters,  Mary  and 
Anne,  and  Mary  was  married  to  her  cousin, 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  who  was  a  great  enemy 
of  the  King  of  France  and  of  the  Pope  ;  and  Anne’s 
husband,  Prince  George,  brother  to  the  King  of 
Denmark,  was  a  Protestant.  He  was  a  dull  man, 
and  people  laughed  at  him  —  because,  whenever  he 
heard  any  news,  he  never  said  anything  but  “  Est 
il  possible?"  is  it  possible?  But  he  had  a  little 
son,  of  whom  there  was  much  hope. 

But  James  had  married  again,  Mary  Beatrice 
d'Este,  an  Italian  princess ;  and,  though  none  of 
her  babies  had  lived  before,  at  last  she  had  a  little 
son  who  was  healthy  and  likely  to  live,  and  who 
was  christened  James.  Poor  little  boy !  Every¬ 
one  was  so  angry  and  disappointed  that  he  should 
have  come  into  the  world  at  all,  that  a  story  was 
put  about  that  he  was  not  the  son  of  the  king  and 
queen,  but  a  strange  baby  who  had  been  carried 
into  the  queen’s  room  in  a  warming-pan,  because 
James  was  resolved  to  prevent  Mary  and  William 
from  reign  lino-. 

Only  silly  people  could  believe  such  a  story  as 
this;  but  all  the  Whigs,  and  most  of  the  Tories, 
thought  in  earnest  that  it  was  a  sad  thing  for  the 
country  to  have  a  young  heir  to  the  throne  brought 


James  II. 


311 


up  to  be  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  to  think  it  right  to 
treat  his  subjects  as  James  was  treating  them. 
Some  would  have  been  patient,  and  have  believed 
that  God  would  bring  it  right,  but  others  were 
resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  the  evils  they  expected ; 
and,  knowing  what  was  the  state  of  people’s  minds, 
William  of  Orange  set  forth  from  Holland,  and 
landed  at  Torbay.  Crowds  of  people  came  to  meet 
him,  and  to  call  on  him  to  deliver  them.  It  was 
only  three  years  since  the  Bloody  Assize,  and  they 
had  not  forgotten  it  in  those  parts.  King  James 
heard  that  one  person  after  another  had  gone  to 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  he  thought  it  not  safe 
for  his  wife  and  child  to  be  any  longer  in  England. 
So,  quietly,  one  night  he  put  them  in  charge  of  a 
French  nobleman  who  had  been  visiting  him,  and 
who  took  them  to  the  Thames,  where,  after  wait¬ 
ing  in  the  dark  under  a  church  wall,  he  brought 
them  a  boat,  and  they  reached  a  ship  which  took 
them  safely  to  France. 

King  James  staid  a  little  longer.  He  did  not 
mind  when  he  heard  that  Prince  George  of  Den¬ 
mark  had  gone  to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  but  only 
laughed,  and  said,  “  Est  il  possible  ?  ”  but  when  he 
heard  his  daughter  Anne,  to  whom  he  had  always 
been  kind,  was  gone  too,  the  tears  came  into  his 


312  Young  Folks' ’  History  of  England. 


eyes,  and  lie  said,  “  God  help  me,  my  own  children 
are  deserting  me.”  He  would  have  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  army,  hut  he  found  that  if  he  did 
so  he  was  likely  to  he  made  prisoner  and  carried  to 
William.  So  he  disguised  himself  and  set  off  for 
France;  but  at  Faversham,  some  people  who  took 
him  for  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  seized  him,  and  he 
was  sent  back  to  London.  However,  as  there  was 
nothing  the  Prince  of  Orange  wished  so  little  as  to 
keep  him  in  captivity,  he  was  allowed  to  escape 
again,  and  this  time  he  safely  reached  France, 
where  he  was  very  kindly  welcomed,  and  had  the 
palace  of  St.  Germain  given  him  for  a  dwelling- 
place. 

It  was  on  the  4th  of  November,  1688,  that 
William  landed,  and  the  change  that  now  took 
place  is  commonly  called  the  English  Revolution. 

We  must  think  of  the  gentlemen,  during  these 
reigns,  as  going  about  in  very  fine  laced  and  ruffled 
coats,  and  the  most  enormous  wigs.  You  know 
the  Roundheads  had  short  hair  and  the  Cavaliers 
long :  so  people  were  ashamed  to  have  short  hair, 
and  wore  wigs  to  hide  it  if  it  would  not  grow,  till 
everybody  came  to  have  shaven  heads,  and  mon¬ 
strous  wigs  in  great  curls  on  their  shoulders :  and 


James  IT. 


318 


even  little  boys’  hair  was  made  to  look  as  like  a 
wig  as  possible.  The  barber  had  the  wig  every 
morning  to  fresh  curl,  and  make  it  white  with  hair 
powder,  so  that  everyone  might  look  like  an  old 
.nan,  with  a  huge  quantity  of  white  hair. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

WILLIAM  III.  AND  MARY  II. 

a.d  1689—1702. 

HEX  James  II.  proved  to  be  entirety  gone, 
the  Parliament  agreed  to  offer  the  crown 
to  William  of  Orange  ■ — the  next  heir  after  James’s 
children  —  and  Mary,  his  wife,  James’s  eldest 
daughter;  but  not  until  there  had  been  new 
conditions  made,  which  would  prevent  the  kings 
from  ever  being  so  powerful  again  as  they  "had 
been  since  the  time  of  Henry  VII.  Remember, 
Magna  Carta,  under  King  John,  gave  the  power  to 
the  nobles.  They  lost  it  by  the  wars  of  the  Roses, 
and  the  Tudor  kings  gained  it;  but  the  Stuart 
kings  could  not  keep  it,  and  the  House  of  Commons 
became  the  strongest  power  in  the  kingdom,  by  the 
Revolution  of  1688. 

The  House  of  Commons  is  made  up  of  persons 

chosen  —  whenever  there  is  a  general  election  —  by 

814 


William  III.  and  Mary  IT. 


315 


the  men  who  have  a  certain  amount  of  property  in 
each  county  and  large  town.  There  must  be  a 
fresh  election,  or  choosing  again  every  seven  years ; 
also,  whenever  the  sovereign  dies ;  and  the  sover¬ 
eign  can  dissolve  the  Parliament  —  that  is,  break  it 
up  —  and  have  a  fresh  election  whenever  it  is 
thought  right.  But  above  the  House  of  Commons 
stands  the  House  of  Lords,  or  Peers.  These  are 
not  chosen,  but  the  eldest  son,  or  next  heir  of  each 
lord,  succeeds  to  his  seat  upon  his  death ;  and  fresh 
peerages  are  given  as  rewards  to  great  generals, 
great  lawyers,  or  people  who  have  deserved  well  of 
their  country.  When  a  law  has  to  be  made,  it  has 
first  t<  be  agreed  to  by  a  majority  —  that  is,  the 
larger  number  —  of  the  Commons,  then  by  a 
majority  of  the  Lords,  and  lastly,  by  the  king  or 
queen.  The  sovereign’s  council  are  called  the 
ministers,  and  if  the  Houses  of  Parliament  do  not 
approve  of  their  way  of  carrying  on  the  govern¬ 
ment  they  vote  against  their  proposals,  and  this 
generally  makes  them  resign,  that  others  may  be 
chosen  in  their  place  who  may  please  the  country 
better. 

This  arrangement  has  gone  on  ever  since  William 
and  Mary  came  in.  However,  James  II.  still  had 
many  friends,  only  they  had  been  out  of  reach  at 


Young  Folk*  History  of  England. 


316 


the  first  alarm.  The  Latin  word  for  James  is 
Jacobus,  and,  therefore,  they  were  called  Jacobites. 
All  Roman  Catholics  were,  of  course,  Jacobites; 
and  there  were  other  persons  who,  though  grieved 
at  the  king’s  conduct,  did  not  think  it  right  to  rise 
against  him  and  drive  him  away ;  and,  having  taken 
an  oath  to  obey  him,  held  that  it  would  be  wrong 
to  swear  obedience  to  anyone  else  while  he  was 
alive.  Archbishop  Sancroft  was  one  of  these.  He 
thought  it  wrong  in  the  new  queen,  Mary,  to  con¬ 
sent  to  take  her  father’s  place ;  and  when  she  sent 
to  ask  his  blessing,  he  told  her  to  ask  her  father’s 
first,  as,  without  that,  Iris  own  would  do  her  little 
good.  Neither  he  nor  Bishop  Ken,  nor  some  other 
bishops,  nor  a  good  many  more  of  the  clergy, 
would  take  the  oaths  to  William,  or  put  his  name 
instead  of  that  of  James  in  the  prayers  at  church. 
They  rather  chose  to  be  turned  out  of  their  bishop¬ 
ries  and  parishes,  and  to  live  in  poverty.  They 
were  called  the  non-jurors,  or  not-swearers. 

Louis,  King  of  France,  tried  to  send  James  back, 
and  gave  him  the  service  of  his  fleet ;  but  it  was 
beaten  by  Admiral  Russell,  off  Cape  La  Hogue. 
Poor  James  could  not  help  crying  out,  “See  my 
brave  English  sailors !  ”  One  of  Charles’s  old 
officers,  Lord  Dundee,  raised  an  army  of  Scots  in 


William  III.  and  Mary  II.  319 

James’s  favor,  but  be  was  killed  just  as  be  had  Avon 
the  battle  of  Killiecrankie ;  and  there  was  no  one 
to  take  up  the  cause  just  then,  and  the  Scotch 
Whigs  were  glad  of  the  change. 

Most  of  James’s  friends,  the  Roman  Catholics, 
were  in  Ireland,  and  Louis  lent  him  an  army  with 
which  to  go  thither  and  try  to  win  his  croAvn 
back.  He  got  on  pretty  well  in  the  South,  but  in 
the  North  —  where  Oliver  Cromwell  had  given 
lands  to  many  of  his  old  soldiers  —  he  met  Avitli 
much  more  resistance.  At  Londonderry,  the  ap¬ 
prentice  boys  shut  the  gates  of  the  toAvn  and  barred 
them  against  him.  A  clergyman  named  George 
Walker  took  the  command  of  the  city,  and  held  it 
out  for  a  hundred  and  five  days  against  him,  till 
everyone  was  nearly  starved  to  death  —  and  at  last 
help  came  from  England.  William  himself  came 
to  Ireland,  and  the  father  and  son-in-law  met  in 
battle  on  the  banks  of  the  Boyne,  on  the  1st  of 
July,  1690.  James  was  routed ;  and  large  numbers 
of  the  Irish  Protestants  have  ever  since  kept  the 
1st  of  July  as  a  great  holiday  —  commemorating 
the  victory  by  Avearing  orange  lilies  and  orange- 
colored  scarfs. 

James  Avas  soon  obliged  to  leave  Ireland,  and  his 
friends  there  were  severely  punished.  In  the 
meantime,  William  was  fighting  the  French  in 


320  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

Holland  —  as  lie  had  done  nearly  all  his  life  — 
while  Mary  governed  the  kingdom  at  home.  She 
was  a  handsome,  stately  lady,  and  was  much 
respected ;  and  there  was  great  grief  when  she  died 
of  the  small-pox,  never  having  had  any  children. 
It  was  settled  upon  this  that  William  should  go  on 
reigning  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  then  that  Princess 
Anne  should  he  queen  ;  and  if  she  left  no  children, 
that  the  next  after  her  should  be  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I.  Her 
name  was  Sophia,  and  she  was  married  to  Ernest 
of  Brunswick,  Elector  of  Hanover.  It  was  also 
settled  that  no  Roman  Catholic,  nor  even  anyone 
who  married  a  Roman  Catholic,  could  ever  he  on 
the  English  throne. 

Most  of  the  Tories  disliked  this  Act  of  Settle¬ 
ment  ;  and  nobody  had  much  love  for  King 
William,  who  was  a  thin,  spare  man,  with  a  large, 
hooked  nose,  and  very  rough,  sharp  manners  — 
perhaps  the  more  sharp  because  he  was  never  in 
good  health,  and  suffered  terribly  from  the  asthma. 
However,  he  managed  to  keep  all  the  countries 
under  him  in  good  order,  and  he  was  very  active, 
and  always  at  war  with  the  French.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  reign  a  fresh  quarrel  began,  in  which  all 
Europe  took  part.  The  King  of  Spain  died  with¬ 
out  children,  and  the  question  was  who  should 


William  III  and  Mary  II  321 

reign  after  him.  The  King  of  France  had  married 
one  sister  of  this  king,  and  the  Emperor  of  Ger¬ 
many  was  the  son  of  her  aunt.  One  wanted  to 
make  his  grandson  king  of  Spain,  the  other  his  son, 
and  so  there  was  a  gre.it  war.  William  III.  took 
part  against  the  French  —  as  he  had  always  been 
their  enemy;  but  just  as  the  war  was  going  to 
begin,  as  he  was  riding  near  his  palace  of  Hampton 
Court,  his  horse  trod  into  a  mole-hill,  and  he  fell, 
breaking  his  collar  bone ;  and  this  hurt  his  weak 
chest  so  much  that  he  died  in  a  few  days,  in  the 
year  1702.-  The  Jacobites  were  very  glad  to  be  rid 
of  him,  and  used  to  drink  the  health  of  the  “little 
gentleman  in  a  black  velvet  coat,”  meaning  the 
mole  which  had  caused  his  death. 


CHAPTER  XL. 


A5JNE. 


a.d.  1702—1714. 


QUEEN  Anne,  the  second  daughter  of  James 
II.,  began  to  reign  on  the  death  of  William 
III.  She  was  a  well-meaning  woman,  but  very 
weak  and  silly ;  and  any  person  who  knew  how  to 
manage  her  could  make  her  have  no  will  of  her 
own.  The  person  who  had  always  had  such  power 
over  her  was  Sarah  Jennings,  a  lady  in  her  train, 
who  had  married  an  officer  named  John  Churchill. 
As  this  gentleman  had  risen  in  the  army,  he  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  most  able  generals  who  ever  lived. 
He  was  made  a  peer,  and,  step  by  step,  came  to  be 
Duke  of  Marlborough.  It  ivas  he  and  his  wife 
who,  being  Whigs,  had  persuaded  Anne  to  desert 
her  father ;  and,  now  she  w  as  queen,  she  did  just 
as  they  pleased.  The  duchess  was  mistress  of  the 


QUEEN  ANNE. 


Anne. 


325 


robes,  and  more  queen  at  home  than  Anne  was; 
and  the  duke  commanded  the  army  which  was 
sent  to  fight  against  the  French,  to  decide  who 
should  be  king  of  Spain.  An  expedition  was  sent 
to  Spain,  which  gained  the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  and 
this  has  been  kept  by  the  English  ever  since. 

Never  were  there  greater  victories  than  were 
gained  by  the  English  and  German  forces  together, 
under  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene 
of  Savoy,  who  commanded  the  Emperor’s  armies. 
The  first  and  greatest  battle  of  them  all  was  fought 
at  Blenheim,  in  Bavaria,  when  the  French  were 
totally  defeated,  with  great  loss.  Marlborough 
was  rewarded  by  the  queen  and  nation  buying  an 
estate  for  him,  which  was  called  Blenheim,  where 
woods  were  planted  so  as  to  imitate  the  position  of 
bis  army  before  the  battle,  and  a  grand  house  built 
and  filled  with  pictures  recording  his  adventures. 
The  other  battles  were  all  in  the  Low  Countries  — 
at  Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet.  The 
city  of  Lisle  was  taken  after  a  long  siege,  and  not 
a  summer  went  by  without  tidings  coming  of  some 
great  victory,  and  the  queen  going  in  a  state  coach 
to  St  Paul's  Cathedral  to  return  thanks  for  it. 

But  all  this  glory  of  her  husband  made  the 
Duchess  of  Marlborough  more  and  more  proud  and 


326  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

overbearing.  She  thought  the  queen  could  not  do 
without  her,  and  so  she  left  off  taking  any  trouble 
to  please  her ;  nay,  she  would  sometimes  scold  her 
more  rudely  than  any  real  lady  would  do  to  any 
woman,  however  much  below  her  in  rank.  Some¬ 
times  she  brought  the  poor  queen  to  tears ;  and  on 
the  day  on  which  Anne  went  in  state  to  St.  Paul’s, 
to  return  thanks  for  the  victory  of  Oudenarde,  she 
was  seen  to  be  crying  all  the  way  from  St.  James’s 
Palace  in  her  coach,  with  the  six  cream-colored 
horses,  because  the  duchess  had  been  scolding  her 
for  putting  on  her  jewels  in  the  way  she  liked  best, 
instead  of  in  the  duchess's  way. 

Now,  Duchess  Sarah  had  brought  to  the  palace, 
to  help  to  wait  on  the  queen,  a  poor  cousin  of  her 
own,  named  Abigail  Masham,  a  much  more  smooth 
and  gentle  person,  but  rather  deceitful.  When  the 
mistress  of  the  robes  was  unkind  and  insolent,  the 
queen  used  to  complain  to  Mrs.  Masham;  and  bv- 
and-by  Abigail  told  her  how  to  get  free.  There 
was  a  gentleman,  well  known  to  Mrs.  Masham  — 
Mr.  Harley,  a  member  of  Parliament  and  a  Tory, 
and  she  brought  him  in  by  the  back  stairs  to  see 
the  queen,  without  the  duchess  knowing  it.  He 
undertook,  if  the  queen  would  stand  by  him,  to  be 
her  minister,  and  to  turn  out  the  Churcliills  and 


THE  DUKE  AND  DUCHESS  OF  MARLBOROUGH. 


Anne. 


329 


their  Whig  friends,  send  away  the  tyrant  duchess, 
and  make  peace,  so  that  the  duke  'might  not  be 
wanted  any  more.  In  fact,  the  war  had  gone  on 
quite  long  enough ;  the  power  of  the  King  of 
France  was  broken,  and  he  was  an  old  man.  whom 
it  was  cruel  to  press  further  ;  but  this  was  not  what 
Anne  cared  about  so  much  as  getting  free  of  the 
duchess.  There  was  great  anger  and  indignation 
among  all  the  Whigs  at  the  breaking  off  the  war 
in  the  midst  of  so  much  glory ;  and,  besides,  the 
nation  did  not  keep  its  engagements  to  the  others 
with  whom  it  had  allied  itself.  Marlborough  him¬ 
self  was  not  treated  as  a  man  deserved  who  had 
won  so  much  honor  for  his  country,  and  he  did 
not  keep  his  health  many  years  after  his  fall. 
Once,  when  he  felt  his  mind  getting  weak,  he 
looked  up  at  his  own  picture  at  Blenheim,  taken 
when  he  was  one  of  the  handsomest,  most  able,  and 
active  men  in  Europe,  and  said  sadly,  “Ah!  that 
teas  a  man.” 

Mr.  Harley  was  made  Earl  of  Oxford,  and 
managed  the  queen’s  affairs  for  her.  He  and  the 
Tories  did  not  at  all  like  the  notion  of  the  German 
family  of  Brunswick  —  Sophia  and  her  son  George 
—  who  were  to  reign  next,  and  they  allowed  the 
queen  to  look  towards  her  own  family  a  little  more. 


330  Youvff  Folks’  History  of  England. 


Her  father  had  died  in  exile,  but  there  remained  , 
the  young  brother  whom  she  had  disowned,  and 
whom  the  French  and  the  Jacobites  called  King 
James  III.  If  he  would  have  joined  the  English 
Church  Anne  would  have  gladly  invited  him,  and 
many  of  the  English  would  have  owned  him  as 
the  right  king ;  but  he  was  too  honest  to  give  up 
his  faith,  and  the  queen  could  do  nothing  for  him. 

Till  her  time  the  Scots  —  though  since  James  I. 
they  had  been  under  the  same  king  as  England 
—  had  had  a  separate  Parliament,  Lords  and  Com¬ 
mons,  who  sat  at  Edinburgh ;  but  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne  the  Scottish  Parliament  was  united  to 
the  English  one,  and  the  members  of  it  had  to 
come  to  Westminster.  This  made  many  Scotsmen 
so  angry  that  they  became  Jacobites ;  but  as  every¬ 
body  knew  that  the  queen  was  a  gentle,  well- 
meaning  old  lad}’,  nobody  wished  to  disturb  her, 
and  all  was  quiet  as  long  as  she  lived,  so  that  her 
reign  was  an  unusually  tranquil  one  at  home,  though 
there  were  such  splendid  victories  abroad.  It  was  a 
time,  too,  when  there  were  almost  as  many  able 
writers  as  in  Queen  Elizabeth’s  time.  The  two  books 
written  at  that  day,  which  you  are  most  likely  to 
have  heard  of,  are  Robinson  Crusoe,  written  by 


Anne. 


331 


Daniel  Defoe,  and  Alexander  Pope’s  translation  of 
Homer’s  Iliad. 

Anne’s  Tory  friends  did  not  make  her  happy; 
they  used  to  quarrel  among  themselves  and  fright-, 
ened  her ;  and  after  one  of  their  disputes  she  had 
an  attack  of  apoplexy,  and  soon  died  of  it,  in  the 
y^ar  1714. 

It  was  during  Anne’s  reign  that  it  became  the 
fashion  to  drink  tea  and  coffee.  One  was  brought 
from  China,  and  the  other  from  Arabia,  not  very 
long  before,  and  they  Avere  very  dear  indeed.  The 
ladies  used  to  drink  tea  out  of  little  cups  of  egg¬ 
shell  china,  and  the  clever  gentlemen,  who  Avere 
called  the  Avits,  used  to  meet  and  talk  at  coffee¬ 
houses,  and  read  newspapers,  and  discuss  plays  and 
poems  ;  also,  the  first  magazine  Avas  then  begun. 
It  Avas  called  “  The  Spectator,”  and  Avas  managed 
by  Mr.  Addison.  It  came  out  once  a  Aveek,  and 
laughed  at  or  blamed  many  of  the  foolish  and 
mischievous  habits  of  the  time.  Indeed  it  did 
much  to  draw  people  out  of  the  bad  Avays  that  had 
come  in  Avitli  Charles  II. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 


GEORGE  I. 

a.d.  1714—1725. 

THE  Electress  Sophia,  who  had  always  desired 
to  be  queen  of  England,  had  died  a  few 
months  before  Queen  Anne ;  and  her  son  George, 
who  liked  his  own  German  home  much  better  than 
the  trouble  of  reigning  in  a  strange  country,  was  in 
no  hurry  to  come,  and  waited  to  see  whether  the 
English  would  not  prefer  the  young  James  Stuart. 
But  as  no  James  arrived  Gearge  set  off,  rather 
unwillingly,  and  was  received  in  London  in  a  dull 
kind  of  way.  He  hardly  knew  any  English,  and 
was  obliged  sometimes  to  talk  bad  Latin  and 
sometimes  French,  when  he  consulted  with  his 
ministers.  He  did  not  bring  a  queen  with  him,  for 
he  had  quarreled  with  his  wife,  and  shut  her  up  in 

a  castle  in  Germany ;  but  he  had  a  son,  also  named 

332 


Greorge  I. 


333 


George,  who  had  a  very  clever,  handsome  wife  — 
Caroline  of  Anspach,  a  German  princess;  but  the 
king  was  jealous  of  them,  and  generally  made  them 
live  abroad. 

Just  when  it  was  too  late,  and  George  I.  had 
thoroughly  settled  into  his  kingdom,  the  Jacobites 
in  the  North  of  England  and  in  Scotland  began  to 
make  a  stir,  and  invited  James  Stuart  over  to  try 
to  gain  the  kingdom.  The  Jacobites  used  to  call 
him  James  III.,  but  the  Whigs  called  him  the 
Pretender;  and  the  Tories  used,  by  way  of  a 
middle  course,  to  call  him  the  Chevalier  —  the 
French  word  for  a  knight,  as  that  he  certainly  was, 
whether  he  were  king  or  pretender.  A  white  rose 
was  the  Jacobite  mark,  and  the  Whigs  still  held  to 
the  orange  lily  and  orange  ribbon,  for  the  sake  of 
William  of  Orange. 

The  Jacobite  rising  did  not  come  to  any  good. 
Two  battles  were  fought  between  the  king's  troops 
and  the  Jacobites  —  one  in  England  and  the  other 
in  Scotland  —  on  the  very  same  day.  The  Scottish 
one  was  at  Sheriff-muir,  and  was  so  doubtful,  that 
the  old  Scottish  song  about  it  ran  thus  — 

Some  say  that  we  won, 

And  some  say  that  they  won, 

Some  say  that  none  won 
At  a’,  man  ; 


334  Young  Folks'  History  of  England, 

But  of  one  thing  I’m  sure, 

That  at  Sheriff- in  uir 
A  battle  there  was, 

Which  I  saw,  man. 

And  we  ran,  and  they  ran, 

And  they  ran,  and  we  ran, 

And  we  ran,  and  they  ran  — 

Awa,  man. 

The  English  one  was  at  Preston,  and  in  it  the 
Jacobites  were  all  defeated  and  made  prisoners;  so 
that  when  their  friend  the  Chevalier  landed  in 
Scotland,  he  found  that  nothing  could  be  done,  and 
had  to  go  back  again  to  Italy,  where  he  generally 
lived,  under  the  Pope’s  protection;  and  where  he 
married  a  Polish  princess,  and  had  two  sons,  whom 
he  named  Charles  Edward  and  Henry. 

This  rising  of  the  Jacobites  took  place  in  the 
year  1715,  and  is,  therefore,  generally  called  the 
Rebellion  of  the  Fifteen.  The  chief  noblemen  who 
were  engaged  in  it  were  taken  to  London  to  be 
tried.  Three  were  beheaded  ;  one  was  saved  upon 
his  wife’s  petition  ;  and  one,  the  Earl  of  Nitlisdale, 
by  the  cleverness  of  his  wife.  She  was  allowed  to 
o-o  and  see  him  in  the  Tower,  and  she  took  a  tall 
lady  in  with  her,  who  contrived  to  wear  a  double 
set  of  outer  garments.  The  friend  went  away, 


George  I. 


335 


after  a  time  ;  and  then,  after  waiting  till  the  guard 
was  changed,  Lady  Nithsdale  dressed  her  husband 
in  the  clothes  that  had  been  brought  in :  and  he, 
too,  went  away,  with  the  hood  over  his  face  and  a 
handkerchief  up  to  his  eyes,  so  that  the  guard 
might  take  him  for  the  other  lady,  crying  bitterly 
at  parting  with  the  earl.  The  wife,  meantime, 
remained  for  some  time,  talking  and  walking  up 
and  down  as  heavily  as  she  could,  till  the  time 
came  when  she  would  naturally  be  obliged  to  leave 
him  —  when,  as  she  passed  by  his  servant,  she  said 
to  him  that  “  My  lord  will  not  be  ready  for  the 
candles  just  yet,”  —  and  then  left  the  Tower,  and 
went  to  a  little  lodging  in  a  back  street,  where  she 
found  her  husband,  and  where  they  both  lay  hid 
while  the  search  for  Lord  Nithsdale  was  going  on, 
and  where  they  heard  the  knell  tolling  when  his 
friends,  the  other  lords,  were  being  led  out  to  have 
tneir  heads  cut  off.  Afterwards,  they  made  their 
escape  to  France,  where  most  of  the  Jacobites  who 
haci  been  concerned  in  the  rising  were  living, 
as  nest  they  could,  on  small  means  —  and  some  of 
them  by  becoming  soldiers  of  the  King  of  France. 

England  was  prosperous  in  the  time  of  George  I., 
and  the  possessions  of  the  country  in  India  were 
growing,  from  a  merchant’s  factory  here  and  there, 


336  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

to  large  lands  and  towns.  But  the  English  neve 
liked  King  George,  nor  did  he  like  them;  and  h 
generally  spent  Ins  time  in  his  own  native  couutr 
of  Hanover.  He  was  taking  a  drive  there  in  ki 
coach,  when  a  letter  was  thrown  in  at  the  window 
As  he  was  reading  it,  a  sudden  stroke  of  apoplexy 
came  on,  and  he  died  in  a  few  hours’  time.  N< 
one  ever  knew  what  was  in  the  letter,  but  souk 
thought  it  was  a  letter  reproaching  him  with  hi.- 
cruelty  to  his  poor  wife,  who  had  died  in  her  prison 
about  eight  months  before.  He  died  in  the  yea] 
1725. 

Gentlemen  were  leaving  off  full-bottomed  wigs 
now,  and  wearing  smaller  ones ;  and  younger  men 
had  their  own  hair  powdered,  and  tied  up  with 
ribbon  in  a  long  tail  behind,  called  a  queue. 
Ladies  powdered  their  hair,  and  raised  it  to  an  im¬ 
mense  height,  and  also  'wore  monstrous  hoops,  long 
ruffles,  and  high-heeled  shoes.  Another  odd  fash¬ 
ion  was  that  ladies  put  black  patches  on  their  faces, 
thinking  they  made  them  look  handsomer.  Both 
ladies  and  gentlemen  took  snuff,  and  carried  be»uti 
ful  snuff-boxes. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 


GEOKGE  II. 


A.D.  1125—1760. 


THE  reign  of  George  II.  was  a  very  warlike 
one.  Indeed  he  was  the  last  king  of  Eng¬ 
land  who  ever  was  personally  in  a  battle ;  and, 
curiously  enough,  this  battle  —  that  of  Fontenoy — 
was  the  last  that  a  king  of  France  was  also  present 

in.  It  was,  however,  not  a  very  interesting  battle, 
337 


338  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


and  it  was  not  clear  who  really  won  it,  nor  are  the 
wars  of  this  time  very  easy  to  understand. 

The  battle  of  Fontenoy  was  fought  in  the  course 
of  a  great  Avar  to  decide  Avho  should  be  emperor  of 
Germany,  in  which  France  and  England  took 
different  sides ;  and  this  made  Charles  Edward 
Stuart,  the  eldest  son  of  James,  think  it  was  a 
good  moment  for  trying  once  again  to  get  back  the 
croAvn  of  his  forefathers.  He  was  a  fine-lookingr 
young  man,  with  winning  manners,  and  a  great 
deal  more  spirit  than  his  father :  and  Avhen  he 
landed  in  Scotland  with  a  very  few  folloAvers,  one 
Highland  gentleman  after  another  was  so  delighted 
with  him  that  they  all  brought  their  clans  to  join 
him,  and  he  Avas'at  the  head  of  quite  a  large  force, 
with  Avhich  he  took  possession  of  the  town  of  Edin¬ 
burgh  ;  but  he  never  could  take  the  castle.  The 
English  army  was  most  of  it  away  fighting  in  Ger¬ 
many,  and  the  soldiers  Avho  met  him  at  Preston- 
pans,  close  to  Edinburgh ;  were  not  well  managed, 
and.Avere  easily  beaten  by  the  Highlanders.  Then 
he  marched  straight  on  into  England :  and  there 
was  great  terror,  for  the  Highlanders  —  Avith  their 
plaids,  long  swords,  and  strange  language  —  were 
thought  to  be  all  savage  robbers,  and  the  London¬ 
ers  expected  to  have  every  house  and  shop  ruined 


CHARLES  EDWARD. 


G-eorge  II. 


389 


and  themselves  murdered :  though  on  the  whole 
the  Highlanders  behaved  veiy  well.  They  would 
probably  have  really  entered  London  if  they  had 
gone  on,  and  reached  it  before  the  army  could  come 
home,  blit  they  grew  discontented  and  frightened 
at  being  so  far  away  from  their  own  hills ;  and  at 
Derby,  Charles  Edward  was  obliged  to  let  them 
turn  back  to  Scotland. 

The  English  army  had  come  back  by  this  time, 
and  the  Scots  were  followed  closely,  getting  more 
sad  and  forlorn,  and  losing  men  in  every  day’s 
march,  till  at  last,  after  they  had  reached  Scotland 
again,  they  made  a  stand  against  the  English 
under  the  king’s  second  son,  William,  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  at  the  heath  of  Culloden.  There 
they  were  entirely  routed,  and  the  prince  had  to 
fly,  and  hide  himself  in  strange  places  and  dis¬ 
guises,  much  as  his  great  uncle,  Charles  II.,  had 
done  before  him.  A  young  lady  named  Flora 
Macdonald  took  him  from  one  of  the  Western  Isles 
to  another  in  a  boat  as  her  Irish  maid,  Betty 
Bourke ;  and,  at  another  time,  he  was  hid  in  a  sort 
of  bower,  called  the  cage,  woven  of  branches  of 
trees  on  a  hill  side,  where  he  lived  with  three 
Highlanders,  who  used  to  go  out  by  turns  to  get 
food.  One  of  them  once  brought  him  a  piece  of 


340  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

ginger-bread  as  a  treat  —  for  they  loved  him  heart¬ 
ily  for  being  patient,  cheerful,  and  thankful  for  all 
they  did  for  him  ;  and  when  at  last  he  found  a  way 
of  reaching  France,  and  shook  hands  with  them  on 
bidding  them  farewell,  one  of  them  tied  up  his 
right  hand,  and  vowed  that  no  meaner  person 
should  ever  touch  it. 

His  friends  suffered  as  much  as  he  did.  The 
Duke  of  Cumberland  and  his  soldiers  cruelly 
punished  all  the  places  where  he  had  been  received, 
and  all  the  gentlemen  who  had  supported  him 
were,  if  they  were  taken,  tried  and  put  to  death  as 
traitors  —  mostly  at  Carlisle.  This,  which  was 
called  the  Rebellion  of  the  Forty-five — because  it 
happened  in  the  year  1745  —  was  the  last  rising  in 
favor  of  the  Stuarts.  Neither  Charles  Edward  nor 
his  brother  Henry  had  any  children,  and  so  the 
family  came  to  an  end. 

The  Empress  Maria  Theresa,  of  Germany,  had  a 
long  war  with  Frederick,  King  of  Prussia,  who  was 
nephew  to  George  II.,  and  a  very  clever  and  brave 
man,  who  made  his  little  kingdom  of  Prussia  very 
warlike  and  brave.  But  he  was  not  a  very  good 
man,  and  these  were  sad  times  among  the  great 
people,  for  few  of  them  thought  much  about  being 
good :  and  there  were  clever  Frenchmen  who 


George  11 


343 


laughed  at  all  religion.  You  know  one  of  the 
Psalms  says,  “  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  There 
is  no  God.”  There  were  a  great  many  such  fools 
at  that  time,  and  their  ways,  together  with  the 
selfishness  of  the  nobles,  soon  brought  terrible 
times  to  France,  and  all  the  countries  round. 

The  wars  under  George  II.  were  by  sea  as  well 
as  by  land:  and,  likewise,  in  the  distant  countries 
where  Englishmen,  on  the  one  hand,  and  French¬ 
men,  on  the  other,  had  made  those  new  homes  that 
we  call  colonies.  In  North  America,  both  English 
and  French  had  large  settlements;  and  when  the 
kings  at  home  were  at  war,  there  were  likewise 
battles  in  these  distant  parts,  and  the  Indians  were 
stirred  up  to  take  part  with  the  one  side  or  the 
other.  They  used  to  attack  the  homes  <u  the 
settlers,  burn  them,  kill  and  torment  the  men,  and 
keep  the  children  to  bring  up  among  their  own. 
The  English  had,  in  general,  the  advantage,  espe¬ 
cially  in  Canada,  where  the  brave  young  General 
Wolfe  led  an  attack,  on  the  very  early  morning,  to 
the  Heights  of  Abraham,  close  to  the  town  of 
Quebec.  He  was  struck  down  by  a  shot  early  in 
the  fight,  and  lay  on  the  ground  with  a  few  officers 
round  him.  “They  run,  they  run!”  he  heard 
them  cry.  “  Who  run? ”  he  asked.  “The  French 


344  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

run.”  “  Then  I  die  happy,”  he  said ;  and  it  was 
by  this  battle  that  England  won  Lower  Canada, 
with  many  French  inhabitants,  whose  descendants 
still  speak  their  old  language. 

In  the  East  Indies,  too,  there  was  much  fighting. 
The  English  and  French  both  had  merchants  there  ; 
and  these  had  native  soldiers  to  guard  them,  and 
made  friends  with  the  native  princes.  When  these 
princes  quarreled  they  helped  them,  and  so  ob¬ 
tained  a  larger  footing.  But  in  this  reign  the 
English  power  was  nearly  ended  in  a  very  sad  way. 
A  Indian  army  came  suddenly  down  on  Calcutta. 
Many  English  got  on  board  the  ships,  but  those 
who  could  not  — 146  in  number  —  were  shut  up  all 
night  in  a  small  room,  in  the  hottest  time  of  the 
year,  and  they  were  so  crushed  together  and  suffo¬ 
cated  by  the  heat  that,  when  the  morning  came, 
there  were  only  twenty -three  of  them  alive.  This 
dreadful  place  was  known  as  the  Black  Hole  of 
Calcutta.  The  next  year  Calcutta  was  won  back 
again ;  and  the  English,  under  Colonel  Clive, 
gained  so  much  ground  that  the  French  had  no 
power  left  in  India,  and  the  English  could  go  on 
obtaining  moi’e  and  more  land,  riches  and  power. 

George  II.  had  lost  his  eldest  son,  Frederick, 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  his  lively  and  clever  wife. 


(reorge  II. 


345 


Queen  Caroline,  many  years  before  liis  death. 
His  chief  ministers  were,  first,  Sir  Robert  Walpole, 
and  afterwards  the  Earl  of  Chatham  —  able  men, 
who  knew  how  to  manage  the  country  through  all 
these  wars.  The  king  died  at  last,  quite  suddenly, 
when  sixty-eight  years  old,  in  the  year  1760. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


GEORGE  m. 


a.d.  1760 — 1785. 


AFTER  George  II.  reigned  his  grandson, 
George  III.,  the  son  of  Frederick,  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  had  died  before  his  father.  The 
Princess  of  Wales,  was  a  good  woman,  who  tried 
to  bring  up  her  children  well ;  and  George  III.  was 
a  dutiful  son  to  her,  and  a  good,  faithful  man  — 

346 


George  III. 


347 


iilways  caring  more  to  do  right  than  for  anything 
else.  He  had  been  born  in  England,  and  did  not 
feel  as  if  Hanover  were  his  home,  as  his  father  and 
grandfather  had  done,  but  loved  England,  and 
English  people,  and  ways.  When  he  was  at  Wind¬ 
sor,  he  used  to  ride  or  walk  about  like  a  country 
squire,  and  he  had  a  ruddy,  hearty  face  and 
manner,  that  made  him  sometimes  be  called  Farmer 
George  ;  and  he  had  an  odd  way  of  saying  “  What  ? 
what?”  when  he  was  spoken  to,  which  made  him 
be  laughed  at ;  but  he  was  as  good  and  true  as  any 
man  who  ever  lived:  and  when  he  thought  a  thing 
was  right,  he  was  as  firm  as  a  rock  in  holding  to  it. 
He  married  a  German  princess  named  Charlotte, 
and  they  did  their  very  utmost  to  make  all  those 
about  them  good.  They  had  a  very  large  family 
•-—no  less  than  fourteen  children  —  and  some  old 
people  still  remember  what  a  beautiful  sight  it  was 
when,  after  church  on  Sunday,  the  king  and  queen 
and  their  children  used  to  walk  up  and  down  the 
stately  terrace  at  Windsor  Castle,  with  a  band 
playing,  and  everyone  who  was  respectably  dressed 
allowed  to  come  and  look  at  them. 

Just  after  George  IIL  came  to  the  crown,  a 
great  war  broke  out  in  the  English  colonies  in 
America,  A  new  tax  had  been  made.  A  tax 


348  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

means  the  money  that  has  to  be  given  to  the 
Government  of  a  country  to  pay  the  judges  and 
their  officers,  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  to  keep  up 
ships  and  buy  weapons,  and  do  all  that  is  wanted 
to  protect  us  and  keep  us  in  order.  Taxes  are 
sometimes  made  by  calling  on  everybody  to  pay 
money  in  proportion  to  what  they  have  —  say 
threepence  for  every  hundred  pounds ;  sometimes 
they  are  made  by  putting  what  is  called  a  duty  on 
something  that  is  bought  and  sold  —  making  it  sell 
for  more  than  its  natural  price  —  so  that  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  gets  the  money  above  the  right  cost. 
This  is  generally  done  with  things  that  people 
could  live  without,  and  had  better  not  buy  too 
much  of  —  such  as  spirits,  tobacco,  and  hair-powder. 
And  as  tea  was  still  a  new  thing  in  England,  which 
only  fine  ladies  drank,  it  was  thought  useless,  and 
there  was  a  heavy  duty  laid  upon  it  when  the  king 
wanted  money.  Now,  the  Americans  got  their  tea 
straight  from  China,  and  thought  it  was  unfair 
that  they  should  pay  tax  on  it.  So,  though  they 
used  it  much  more  than  the  English  then  did,  they 
gave  it  up,  threw  whole  ship-loads  of  it  into  the 
harbor  at  Boston,  and  resisted  the  soldiers.  A 
gentleman  named  George  Washington  took  the 
command,  and  they  declared  they  would  fight  for 


FT’  \NKIJN. 


George  III 


351 


freedom  from  the  mother  country.  The  French 
were  beginning  to  think  freedom  was  a  fine  thing, 
and  at  first  a  few  French  gentlemen  came  over  to 
fight  among  the  Americans,  and  then  tire  king, 
Louis  XVI.,  quarreled  with  George  III.,  and 
helped  them  openly. 

There  was  a  very  clever  man  among  the  Ameri¬ 
cans  named  Benjamin  Franklin,  a  printer  by  trade, 
but  who  made  very  curious  discoveries.  One  of 
them  was  that  lightning  comes  from  the  strange 
power  men  call  electricity,  and  that  there  are  some 
substances  which  it  will  run  along,  so  that  it  can 
be  brought  down  to  the  ground  without  doing  any 
mischief — especially  metallic  wires.  He  made 
sure  of  it  by  flying  a  kite,  with  such  an  iron  wire, 
up  to  the  clouds  when  there  Avas  a  thunder-storm. 
The  lightning  Avas  attracted  by  the  Avire,  ran  right 
down  the  wet  string  of  the  kite,  and  only  glanced 
off  Avhen  it  came  to  a  silk  ribbon  —  because 
electricitj'  Avill  not  go  along  silk.  After  this,  such 
wires  Avere  fastened  to  buildings,  and  carried  down 
into  the  ground,  to  convey  aAvay  the  force  of  the 
lightning.  Perhaps  you  have  seen  them  on  the 
tops  of  churches  or  tall  buildings  ;  they  are  called 
conductors.  Franklin  was  a  plain-spoken,  homely  - 
dressing  man ;  and  when  he  Avas  sent  to  Paris  on 


352  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 

the  affairs  of  the  Americans,  all  the  great  ladies 
and  gentlemen  went  into  raptures  about  his  beauti¬ 
ful  simplicity,  and  began  to  imitate  him,  in  a  very 
affected,  ridiculous  way. 

In  the  meantime,  the  war  went  on  between 
America  and  England,  year  after  year;  and  the 
Americans  became  trained  soldiers  and  got  the 
better,  so  that  George  III.  was  advised  to  give  up 
his  rights  over  them.  Old  Lord  Chatham,  his  grand¬ 
father’s  minister,  who  had  long  been  too  sick  and 
feeble  to  undertake  any  public  business,  thought  it 
so  bad  for  the  country  to  give  anything  up,  that  he 
came  down  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  make  a  speech 
against  doing  so  ;  but  he  was  not  strong  enough  for 
the  exertion,  and  had  only  just  done  speaking 
when  he  fainted  away,  and  his  son,  William  Pitt, 
was  called  out  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  help 
to  carry  him  away  to  his  coach.  He  was  taken 
home,  and  died  in  a  few  day’s  time. 

The  war  went  on,  but  when  it  had  lasted 
seven  years,  the  English  felt  that  peace  must  be 
made  ;  and  so  George  III.  gave  up  his  rights  to  all 
that  country  that  is  called  the  United  States  of 
America.  The  United  States  set  up  a  Government 
of  their  own,  which  has  gone  on  ever  since, 
without  a  king,  but  with  a  President,  who  is 


George  III. 


353 


freshly  chosen  every  four  years,  and  for  whom 
every  citizen  has  a  vote. 

As  if  to  make  up  for  what  was  lost  in  the  West, 
the  English  were  winning  a  great  deal  in  the  East 
Indies,  chiefly  from  a  great  prince  called  Tippoo 
Sahib,  who  was  very  powerful,  and  at  one  time 
took  a  number  of  English  officers  prisoners, 
and  drove  them  to  his  city  of  Seringapatam, 
chained  together  in  pairs,  and  kept  them  half 
starved  in  a  prison,  where  several  died ;  but  he  was 
defeated  and  killed.  They  were  set  free  by  their 
countrymen,  after  nearly  two  years  of  grievous 
hardship. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 


GEORGE  m. 

A.D.  1785—1810. 

*  |  ''HE  chief  sorrow  of  George  III.  was  that  his 
eldest  sons  were  wild,  disobedient  young 
men.  George,  Prince  of  AVales,  especially,  was 
very  handsome,  and  extremely  proud  of  his  own 
beauty.  He  was  called  the  First  Gentleman  in 
Europe,  and  set  the  fashion  in  every  matter  of 
taste ;  but  he  spent  and  wasted  money  to  a  shame¬ 
ful  amount,  and  was  full  of  bad  habits ;  besides 
which,  he  used  to  set  himself  in  every  Avay  in  his 
power  to  vex  and  contradict  his  father  and  mother, 
whom  he  despised  for  their  plain  simple  ways  and 
their  love  of  duty.  The  next  two  brothers  — Fred- 
.  erick,  Duke  of  York,  and  William,  Duke  of 
Clarence  —  had  also  very  bad  habits ;  but  they 
went  astray  from  carelessness,  and  did  not  wilfully 

oppose  their  father,  like  their  eldest  brother. 

354 


w'.imwaunff! 


PORTRAIT  OF  PITT. 


Georye  III. 


357 


William  Pitt,  son  of  Lord  Chatham,  was  Prime 
Minister.  He  thought  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
in  England  ought  to  have  the  same  rights  as  the 
king’s  other  subjects,  and  not  be  hindered  from 
being  members  of  Parliament,  judges,  or,  indeed, 
from  holding  any  office,  and  he  wanted  to  bring  a 
bill  into  Parliament  for  this  purpose.  But  the 
king  thought  that  for  him  to  consent  would  be 
contrary  to  the  oath  he  had  sworn  when  he  was 
crowned,  and  which  had  been  drawn  up  when 
William  of  Orange  came  over.  Nothing  would 
make  George  III.  break  his  word,  and  he  re¬ 
mained  firm,  though  he  was  so  harassed  and 
distressed  that  he  fell  ill,  and  lost  the  use  of  his 
reason  for  a  time.  There  were  questions  whether 
the  regency  —  that  is,  the  right  to  act  as  king  — 
should  be  given  to  the  son,  who,  though  his  heir, 
was  so  unlike  him,  when  he  recovered  ;  and  there 
was  a  great  day  of  joy  throughout  the  nation,  when 
he  went  in  state  to  St.  Paul’s  Cathedral  to  return 
thanks. 

In  the  meantime,  terrible  troubles  were  going  on 
in  France.  Neither  the  kings  nor  nobles  had.  for 
ages  past,  any  notion  of  their  proper  duties  to  the 
people  under  them,  but  had  ground  them  down  so 
hard  that  at  last  they  could  bear  it  no  longer ; 


358  Young  Folks'  History  of  England . 

and  there  was  a  great  rising  up  throughout  the 
country,  which  is  known  as  the  great  French 
Revolution.  The  king  who  was  then  reigning  was 
a  good  and  kind  man,  Louis  XVI.,  who  would 
gladly  have  put  things  in  better  order ;  but  he  was 
not  as  wise  or  firm  as  lie  was  good,  and  the  people 
hated  him  for  the  evil  doings  of  his  forefathers. 
So,  while  he  was  trying  to  make  up  his  mind  what 
to  do,  the  power  was  taken  out  of  his  hands,  and 
he,  with  his  wife,  sister,  and  two  children,  were 
shut  up  in  prison.  An  evil  spirit  came  into  the 
people,  and  made  them  believe  that  the  onty  way 
to  keep  themselves  free  would  be  to  get  rid  of  all 
who  had  been  great  people  in  the  former  days.  Sc 
they  set  up  a  machine  for  cutting  off  heads,  called 
the  guillotine,  and  there,  day  after  day,  nobles  and 
priests,  gentlemen  and  ladies  —  even  the  king, 
queen,  and  princess,  were  brought  and  slain.  The 
two  children  were  not  guillotined,  but  the  poor 
little  boy,  only  nine  years  old,  was  worse  off  than 
if  he  had  been,  for  the  cruel  wretches  who  kept 
him  called  him  the  wolf-cub,  and  said  he  was  to  be 
got  rid  of,  and  they  kept  him  alone  in  a  dark,  dirty 
room,  and  used  him  so  ill  that  he  pined  to  death. 
His  sister  remained  in  prison  till  better  days  came. 
Many  French  gentry  and  clergymen  fled  to  Eng- 


George  III. 


359 


land,  and  there  were  kindly  treated  and  helped  to 
live ;  and  the  king’s  brother,  now  the  rightful  king 
himself,  found  a  home  there  too. 

At  last  the  French  grew  weary  of  this  horrible 
bloodshed ;  but,  as  they  could  not  manage  them¬ 
selves,  a  soldier  named  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  by  his 
great  cleverness  and  the  victories  he  gained  over 
other  nations,  succeeded  in  getting  all  the  power. 
His  victories  were  wonderful.  He  beat  the  Ger¬ 
mans,  the  Italians,  the  Russians,  and  conquered 
wherever  he  went.  There  was  only  one  nation  he 
never  could  beat,  and  that  was  the  English  ;  though 
he  very  much  wanted  to  have  come  over  here  with 
a  great  fleet  and  army,  and  have  conquered  our 
island.  All  over  England  people  got  ready.  All 
the  men  learnt  something  of  how  to  be  soldiers, 
and  made  themselves  into  regiments  of  volunteers ; 
and  careful  watch  was  kept  against  the  quantities 
of  flat-bottomed  boats  that  Bonaparte  had  made 
ready  to  bring  his  troops  across  the  English 
Channel.  But  no  one  had  ships  and  sailors  like 
the  English;  and,  besides,  they  had  the  greatest 
sea-captain  who  ever  lived,  whose  name  was  Hora¬ 
tio  Nelson.  When  the  French  went  under  Napo¬ 
leon  to  try  to  conquer  Egypt  and  all  the  East, 
Nelson  went  after  them  with  his  ships,  and  beat 


360  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


the  whole  French  fleet,  though  it  was  a  great  deal 
larger  than  his  own,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile, 
blowing  up  the  Admiral’s  ship,  and  taking  or  burn¬ 
ing  many  more.  Afterwards,  when  the  King  of  Den¬ 
mark  was  being  made  to  take  part  against  England. 
Nelson's  fleet  sailed  to  Copenhagen,  fought  a  sharp 
battle,  and  took  all  the  Danish  ships.  And  lastly, 
when  Spain  had  made  friends  with  France,  and 
both  their  fleets  had  joined  together  against  En¬ 
gland.  Lord  Nelson  fought  them  both  off  Cape 
Trafalgar,  and  gained  the  greatest  of  all  his 
victories;  but  it  was  his  last,  for  a  Frenchman  on 
the  mast-head  shot  him  through  the  backbone,  and 
he  died  the  same  night.  No  one  should  ever 
forget  the  order  he  gave  to  all  his  sailors  in  all  the 
ships  before  the  battle  — “  England  expects  every 
man  to  do  his  duty.” 

After  the  battle  of  Trafalgar  the  sea  was  cleared 
of  the  enemy’s  ships,  and  there  was  no  more  talk 
of  invading  England.  Indeed,  though  Bonaparte 
overran  nearly  all  the  Continent  of  Europe,  the 
smallest  strip  of  sea  was  enough  to  stop  him,  for 
his  ships  could  not  stand  before  the  English  ones. 

All  this  time  English  affairs  were  managed  by 
Mr.  Pitt,  Lord  Chatham’s  son ;  but  he  died  the 
very  same  year  as  Lord  Nelson  was  killed,  1805, 


George  III. 


361 


and  then  his  great  rival,  Mr.  Fox,  was  minister  in  his 
stead :  but  he,  too,  died  very  soon,  and  affairs  were 
managed  by  less  clever  men,  but  who  were  able  to 
go  on  in  the  line  that  Pitt  had  marked  out  for  them : 
and  that  was,  of  standing  up  with  all  their  might 
against  Bonaparte  —  though  he  now  called  himself 
the  Emperor,  Napoleon  I.,  and  was  treading  down 
every  country  in  Europe. 

The  war  time  was  a  hard  one  at  home  in 
England,  for  everything  was  very  dear  and  the 
taxes  were  high:  but  everyone  felt  that  the  only 
way  to  keep  the  French  away  was  to  go  on  fight¬ 
ing  with  them,  and  trying  to  help  the  people  in  the 
countries  they  seized  upon.  So  the  whole  country 
stood  up  bravely  against  them. 

Sad  trouble  came  on  the  good  old  king  in  his 
later  years.  He  lost  his  sight,  and,  about  the  same 
time,  died  his  youngest  child,  the  Princess  Amelia, 
of  whom  he  was  very  fond.  His  grief  clouded  his 
mind  again,  and  there  was  no  recovery  this  time. 
He  was  shut  up  in  some  rooms  at  Windsor  Castle, 
where  he  had  music  to  amuse  him,  and  his  good 
wife,  Queen  Charlotte,  watched  over  him  carefully 
as  long  as  she  lived. 


CHAPTER  XLY. 


GEORGE  in. - THE  REGENCY. 

A.D  1810—1820. 

WHEN  George  III.  lost  his  senses,  the  govern¬ 
ment  was  given  to  his  son,  the  Prince  of 
Wales  —  the  Prince  Regent  as  he  was  called. 
Regent  means  a  person  ruling  instead  of  the  king, 
everyone  expected  that,  as  he  had  always  quarreled 
with  his  father,  he  would  change  everything  and 
have  different  ministers ;  hut  instead  of  that,  he 
went  on  just  as  had  been  done  before,  fighting  with 
the  French,  and  helping  every  country  that  tried 
to  lift  up  its  head  against  Bonaparte. 

Spain  was  one  of  these  countries.  Napoleon  had 
managed  to  get  the  king,  and  queen,  and  eldest 
son,  all  into  his  hands  together,  shut  them  up  as 
prisoners  in  France,  and  made  his  own  brother 
king.  But  the  Spaniards  were  too  brave  to  bear 

this,  and  they  rose  up  against  him,  calling  the 

362 


Greorge  111. — The  Regency. 


363 


English  to  help  them.  Sir  John  Moore  was  sent 
first,  and  he  marched  an  army  into  Spain ;  but, 
though  the  Spaniards  were  brave,  they  were  not 
steady,  and  when  Napoleon  sent  more  troops 
he  was  obliged  to  march  back  over  steep  hills, 
covered  with  snow,  to  Corunna,  where  he  had  left 
the  ships.  The  French  followed  him,  and  he  had 
to  fight  a  battle  to  drive  them  back,  that  his 
soldiers  might  embark  in  quiet.  It  was  a  great 
victory  ;  but  in  the  midst  of  it  Sir  J ohn  Moore  was 
wounded  by  a  cannon  shot,  and  only  lived  long 
enough  to  hear  that  the  battle  was  won.  He  was 
buried  at  the  dead  of  night  on  the  ramparts  of 
Corunna,  wrapped  in  his  cloak. 

However,  before  the  year  was  over,  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley  was  sent  out  to  Portugal  and  Spain. 
He  never  once  was  beaten,  and  though  twice  he 
had  to  retreat  into  Portugal,  he  soon  won  back  the 
ground  he  had  lost;  and  in  three  years’  time  he 
had  driven  the  French  quite  out  of  Spain,  and  even 
crossed  the  Pyrenean  mountains  after  them,  forcing 
them  back  into  their  own  country,  and  winning  the 
battle  of  Toulouse  on  their  own  ground.  This 
grand  war  had  more  victories  in  it  than  you  will 
easily  remember.  The  chief  of  them  were  at 
Salamanca,  Yittoria,  Orthes,  and  Toulouse ;  and 


864  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 

tlie  whole  war  was  called  the  Peninsular  War, 
because  it  was  fought  in  the  Peninsular  of  France 
and  Spain.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  had  been  made 
Duke  of  Wellington,  to  reward  him,  and  he  set  off 
across  France  to  meet  the  armies  of  the  other 
European  countries.  For,  while  the  English  were 
fighting  in  Spain,  the  other  states  of  Europe  had 
all  joined  together  against  Napoleon,  and  driven 
him  away  from  robbing  them,  and  hunted  him  at 
last  back  to  Paris,  where  they  made  him  give  up 
all  his  unlawful  power.  The  right  king  of  France, 
Louis  XVIII.,  was  brought  home,  and  Napoleon 
was  sent  to  a  little  island  named  Elba,  in  the  Medi¬ 
terranean  Sea,  where  it  was  thought  he  could  do 
uo  harm. 

But  only  the  next  year  he  managed  to  escape, 
and  came  back  to  France,  where  all  his  old  soldiers 
were  delighted  to  see  him  again.  The  long  was 
obliged  to  fly,  and  Napoleon  was  soon  at  the  head 
of  as  large  and  fierce  an  army  as  ever.  The  first 
countries  that  were  ready  to  fight  with  him  were 
England  and  Prussia.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
with  the  English,  and  Marshal  Blucher  with  the 
Prussian  army,  met  him  on  the  field  of  Waterloo, 
in  Belgium  ;  and  there  he  was  so  entirely  defeated 
that  he  had  to  flee  away  from  the  field.  But  he 


PLYMOUTH  HARBOR. 


Greorc/e  III. —  The  Regency. 


367 


found  no  rest  or  shelter  anywhere,  and  at  last 
was  obliged  to  give  himself  u]f  to  the  captain  of  an 
English  ship  named  the  Bellerophon.  He  was  taken 
to  Plymouth  harbor,  and  kept  in  the  ship  while  it 
was  being  determined  what  should  be  done  with 
him :  and  at  length  it  was  decided  to  send  him  to 
St.  Helena,  a  very  lonely  island  far  away  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  whence  lie  would  have  no  chance 
of  escaping.  There  he  was  kept  for  live  years,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  he  died. 

The  whole  of  Europe  was  at  peace  again ;  but 
the  poor  old  blind  King  George  did  not  know  it, 
nor  how  much  times  had  changed  in  his  long  reign. 
The  war  had  waked  people  up  from  the  dull  state 
they  had  been  in  so  long,  and  much  was  going  on 
that  began  greater  changes  than  anyone  thought 
of.  Sixty  years  before,  when  he  began  to  reign, 
the  roads  were  so  bad  that  it  took  three  days  to  go 
by  coach  to  London  from  Bath ;  now  they  were 
smooth  and  good,  and  fine  swift  horses  were  kept 
at  short  stages,  which  made  the  coaches  take  only 
a  few  hours  on  the  journey.  Letters  came  much 
quicker  and  more  safely  ;  there  were  a  great  many 
newspapers,  and  everybody  was  more  alive.  Some 
great  writers  there  were,  too :  the  Scottish  poet, 
W alter  Scott,  who  wrote  some  of  the  most  delight- 


868  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

ful  tales  there  are  in  the  world ;  and  three  who 
lived  at  the  lakes  —  Wordsworth,  Southey,  and 
Coleridge.  It  was  only  in  this  reign  that  people 
cared  to  write  books  for  children.  Mrs.  Trimmer’s 
“  Robins,”  Mr.  Day’s  “  Sandford  and  Merton,”  and 
Miss  Edgeworth's  charming  stories  were  being 
written  in  those  days.  Mrs.  Trimmer,  and  another 
good  lady  called  Hannah  More,  were  trying  to  get 
the  poor  in  villages  better  taught ;  and  there  was  a 
very  good  Yorkshire  gentleman  —  William  Wilber- 
force  —  wdio  was  striving  to  make  people  better. 

As  to  people’s  looks  in  those  days,  they  had  quite 
left  off  wigs  —  except  bishops,  judges,  and  lawyers, 
in  their  robes.  Men  had  their  hair  short  and  curly, 
and  wore  coats  shaped  like  evening  ones  —  gen¬ 
erally  blue,  with  brass  buttons  —  buff  waistcoats, 
and  tight  trousers  tucked  into  their  boots,  tight 
stocks  round  their  necks,  and  monstrous  shirt-frills. 
Ladies  had  their  gowns  and  pelisses  made  very 
short-waisted,  and  as  tight  and  narrow  as  they 
could  be,  though  with  enormous  sleeves  in  them, 
and  their  hair  in  little  curls  on  their  foreheads. 
Old  ladies  wore  turbans  in  evening  dress ;  and  both 
they  and  their  daughters  had  immense  bonnets  and 
hats,  with  a  high  crown  and  very  large  front. 

In  the  year  1820,  the  good  old  king  passed  away. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

GEORGE  IV. 

A.D.  1820—1880. 

/^EORGE  IV.  was  not  much  under  sixty  years 
old  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  and  had 
really  been  king  in  all  but  the  name  for  eight  years 
past.  He  had  been  married  to  the  Princess  Caro¬ 
line  of  Brunswick,  much  against  his  will,  for  she 
was,  though  a  princess,  far  from  being  a  lady  in 
any  of  her  ways,  and  he  disliked  her  from  the  first 
moment  he  saw  her ;  and  though  he  could  not  quite 
treat  her  as  Henry  VIII.  had  treated  Anne  of 
Cleves,  the  two  were  so  unhappy  together  that, 
after  the  first  year,  they  never  lived  in  the  same 
house.  They  had  had  one  child,  a  daughter, 
named  Charlotte — a  good,  bright,  sensible,  high- 
spirited  girl  —  on  whom  all  the  hopes  of  the 

country  were  fixed ;  but  as  she  grew  up,  there  were 

8G9 


370  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

many  troubles  between  her  love  and  her  duty 
towards  her  father  and  mother.  As  soon  as  the 
peace  was  made,  the  Princess  of  Wales  went  to 
Italy  and  lived  there,  with  a  great  many  people  of 
bad  characters  about  her.  Princess  Charlotte  was 
married  to  Prince  Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  and 
was  very  happy  with  him  ;  but,  to  the  great  grief  of 
all  England,  she  died  in  the  bloom  of  her  youth, 
the  year  before  her  grandfather. 

George  IV.,  though  he  was  so  much  alone  in  the 
world,  prepared  to  have  a  most  splendid  corona¬ 
tion  ;  but  as  soon  as  his  wife  heard  that  he  was 
king,  she  set  off  to  come  to  England  and  be 
crowned  with  him.  He  was  exceedingly  angry, 
forbade  her  name  to  be  put  into  the  Prayer-book  as 
queen,  and  called  on  the  House  of  Lords  to  break 
his  marriage  with  one  who  had  proved  herself  not 
worthy  to  be  a  wife.  There  was  a  great  uproar 
about  it,  for  though  the  king’s  Mends  wanted  him 
to  be  rid  of  her,  all  the  country  knew  that  he  had 
been  no  better  to  her  than  she  had  been  to  him, 
and  felt  it  unfair  that  the  weaker  one  should  have 
all  the  shame  and  disgrace,  and  the  stronger  one 
none.  One  of  Caroline’s  defenders  said  that  if  her 
name  were  left  out  of  the  Litany,  yet  still  she  was 
prayed  for  there  as  one  who  was  desolate  and 


George  IV. 


371 


oppressed.  People  took  up  her  cause  much  more 
hotly  than  she  deserved,  and  the  king  was  obliged 
to  give  up  the  enquiry  into  her  behavior,  but  still 
he  would  not  let  her  be  crowned.  In  the  midst  of 
all  the  splendor  and  solemnity  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  a  carriage  was  driven  to  the  door  and 
entrance  was  demanded  for  the  queen;  but  she 
was  kept  back,  and  the  people  did  not  seem 
disposed  to  interrupt  the  show  by  doing  anything 
in  her  favor,  as  she  and  her  friends  had  expected. 
She  went  back  to  her  rooms,  and,  after  being  more 
foolish  than  ever  in  her  ways,  died  of  fretting  and 
pining.  It  is  a  sad  history,  where  both  were  much 
to  blame ;  and  it  shows  how  hateful  to  the  kina;  she 
must  have  been,  that,  when  Napoleon  died  he  was 
told  his  greatest  enemy  was  dead,  he  answered, 
“  When  did  she  die  ?  ”  But  if  he  had  been  a  good 
man  himself,  and  not  selfish,  he  would  have  borne 
with  the  poor,  ill  brought  up,  giddy  girl,  when  first 
she  came,  and  that  would  have  prevented  her 
going  so  far  astray. 

George  IV.  made  two  journeys  —  one  to  Scot¬ 
land,  and  the  other  to  Ireland.  He  was  the  first  of 
the  House  of  Brunswick  who  ever  visited  these 
other  two  kingdoms,  and  he  was  received  in  both 


372  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


■with  great  splendor  and  rejoicing ;  but  after  this 
his  health  began  to  fail,  and  he  disliked  showing 
himself.  He  spent  most  of  his  time  at  a  house  he 
had  built  for  himself  at  Brighton,  called  the 
Pavilion,  and  at  Windsor,  where  he  used  to  drive 
about  in  the  park.  He  was  kind  and  gracious  to 
those  with  whom  he  associated,  but  they  were  as 
few  as  possible. 

He  was  vexed  and  angry  at  having  to  consent  to 
the  Bill  for  letting  Roman  Catholics  sit  in  Parlia¬ 
ment,  and  hold  other  office  —  the  same  that  Iris 
father  had  stood  out  against.  It  Avas  not  that  he 
cared  for  one  religion  more  than  another,  for  he 
had  never  been  a  religious  man,  but  he  saw 
that  it  Avould  be  the  beginning  of  a  great  many 
changes  that  Avould  alter  the  Avhole  state  of  things. 
His  next  brother,  Frederick,  Duke  of  York,  died 
before  him ;  and  the  third,  William,  Duke'' of  Clar- 
ence,  who  had  been  brought  up  as  an  officer  in  the 
navy,  Avas  a  friend  of  the  Whigs,  and  of  those  who 
were  ready  to  make  alterations.  • 

Changes  were  coming  of  themselves,  though  — 
for  inventions  Avere  making  progress  in  this  time  of 
peace.  People  had  begun  to  find  out  the  great 
poAver  of  steam,  and  had  made  it  moA’e  the  ships, 


George  IV 


373 


which  had  hitherto  depended  upon  the  winds,  and 
thus  it  became  much  easier  to  travel  from  one 
country  to  another  and  to  send  goods.  Steam  was 
also  being  used  to  work  engines  for  spinning  and 
weaving  cotton,  linen,  and  wool,  and  for  working- 
in  metals ;  so  that  what  had  hitherto  been  done  by 
hand,  by  small  numbers  of  skilful  people,  was  now 
brought  about  by  large  machines,  where  the  labor 
was  done  by  steam ;  but  quantities  of  people  were 
needed  to  assist  the  engine.  And  as  steam  cannot 
be  had  without  fire,  and  most  of  the  coal  is  in  the 
Northern  parts  of  England,  almost  all  of  these 
works  were  set  up  in  them,  and  people  flocked  to 
get  work  there,  so  that  the  towns  began  to  grow 
very  large.  Manchester  was  one,  with  Liverpool 
as  the  sea-port  from  which  to  send  its  calico  and 
get  its  cotton.  Sheffield  and  Birmingham  grew 
famous  for  works  in  iron  and  steel,  and  so  on;  and 
all  this  tended  to  make  the  manufacturers  as  rich 
and  great  as  the  old  lords  and  squires,  who  had 
held  most  of  the  power  in  England  ever  since,  at 
the  Revolution,  they  had  got  it  away  from  the  king. 
Everyone  saw  that  some  great  change  would  soon 
come ;  but  before  it  came  to  the  point  George  IV. 
fell  ill,  and  died  after  a  reign  of  twenty  years  in 


374  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

reality,  but  of  only  ten  in  name,  the  first  five  of 
which  were  spent  in  war,  and  the  last  fifteen  in 
peace.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Sir  Robert 
Peel  were  his  chief  ministers  —  for  the  duke  was  as 
clear-headed  in  peace  as  he  was  in  war. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 


WILLIAM  IV. 


A.d.  1830—1837. 


EORGE  IV.  had,  as  you  know,  no  child 


living  at  the  time  of  his  death.  His  next 
brother,  Frederick  Duke  of  York,  died  before  him, 
likewise  without  children,  so  the  crown  went 
to  William,  Duke  of  Clarence,  third  son  of  George 
III.  He  had  been  a  sailor  in  his  younger  days,  but 
was  an  elderly  man  when  he  came  to  the  throne. 
He  was  a  dull  and  not  a  very  wise  man,  but  good- 
natured  and  kind,  and  had  an  open,  friendly,  sailor 
manner ;  and  his  wife,  Queen  Adelaide,  of  Saxe- 
Meiningen,  was  an  excellent  woman,  whom  every¬ 
one  respected.  They  never  had  any  children  but 
two  daughters  who  died  in  infancy :  and  everyone 
knew  that  the  next  heir  must  be  the  Princess 
Victoria,  daughter  to  the  next  brother,  Edward, 
Duke  of  Kent,  who  had  died  the  year  after  she  was 
born. 


375 


376  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

King  William  IV.  had  always  been  friendly 
with  the  Whigs,  who  wanted  power  for  the  people. 
Those  who  went  furthest  among  them  were  called 
Radicals,  because  they  wanted  a  radical  reform  — 
that  is,  going  to  the  root.  In  fact,  it  was  time  to 
alter  the  way  of  sending  members  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  for  some  of  the  towns  that  had  once 
been  big  enough  to  choose  one  were  now  deserted 
and  grown  very  small,  while  on  the  other  hand, 
others  which  used  to  be  little  villages,  like 
Birmingham  and  Brighton,  had  now  become  very 
large,  and  full  of  people. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  his  friends  wanted 
to  consider  the  best  way  of  setting  these  things 
to  rights,  but  the  Radicals  wanted  to  do  much 
more  and  much  faster  than  he  was  willing  to  grant. 
The  poor  fancied  that  the  new  rights  proposed 
would  make  them  better  off  all  at  once,  and  that 
every  man  would  get  a  fat  pig  in  his  sty  and  as 
much  bread  as  he  wanted ;  and  they  were  so  angry 
at  any  delay,  that  they  went  about  in  bands  burn¬ 
ing  the  hay-ricks  and  stacks  of  corn,  to  frighten 
their  landlords.  And  the  Duke  of  Wellington's 
great  deeds  were  forgotten  in  the  anger  of  the 
mob,  who  gathered  round  him,  ready  to  abuse  and 
pelt  him  as  he  rode  along ;  and  yet,  as  they  saw 


William  IV. 


377 


his  quiet,  calm  way  of  going  on,  taking  no  heed  to 
them,  and  quite  fearless,  no  one  raised  a  hand. 
They  broke  the  windows  of  his  house  in  London, 
though,  and  he  had  iron  blinds  put  up  to  protect 
them.  He  went  out  of  office,  and  the  Whigs  came 
in,  and  then  the  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
which  was  called  the  Reform  bill  —  because  it  set 
to  rights  what  had  gone  wrong  as  to  which  towns 
should  have  members  of  their  own,  and,  besides, 
allowed  everyone  in  a  borough  town,  who  rented  a 
house  at  ten  pounds  a  year,  to  vote  for  the  member 
of  Parliament.  A  borough  is  a  town  that  has  a 
member  of  Parliament,  and  a  city  is  one  that  is 
large  enough  to  have  a  mayor  and  an  alderman  to 
manage  its  affairs  at  home. 

Several  more  changes  were  made  under  King 
William.  Most  of  the  great  union  workhouses 
were  built  then,  and  it  was  made  less  easy  to  get 
help  from  the  parish  without  going  to  live  in  one. 
This  was  meant  to  cure  people  of  being  idle  and 
liking  to  live  on  other  folk's  money  —  and  it  has 
done  good  in  that  way ;  but  workhouses  are  sad 
places  for  the  poor  aged  people  who  cannot  work, 
and  it  is  a  great  kindness  to  help  them  to  keep  out 
of  them. 

The  best  tiling  that  was  done  was  the  setting  the 


378  Young  Folks  History  of  England. 

slaves  free.  Look  at  the  map  of  America,  and  you 
will  see  a  number  of  islands  —  beautiful  places, 
where  sugar-canes,  and  coffee,  and  spices  grow. 
Many  of  these  belong  to  the  English,  but  it  is  too 
hot  for  Englishmen  to  work  there.  So,  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  there  had  been  a  wicked 
custom  that  ships  should  go  to  Africa,  and  there 
the  crews  would  steal  negro  men,  women  and 
children,  or  buy  them  of  tribes  of  fierce  negroes 
who  had  made  them  captive,  and  carry  them  off  to 
the  West  Indian  Islands,  where  they  were  sold  to 
work  for  their  masters,  just  as  cattle  are  bought  and 
sold.  An  English  gentleman  —  William  Wilber- 
force  —  worked  half  liis  life  to  get  this  horrible 
slave  trade  forbidden  ;  and  at  last  he  succeeded,  in 
the  year  1807,  whilst  George  III.  was  still  reign¬ 
ing.  But  though  no  more  blacks  were  brought 
from  Africa,  still  the  people  in  the  West  Indies 
were  allowed  to  keep,  and  buy  and  sell  the  slaves 
they  already  had.  So  Wilberforce  and  his  friends 
still  worked  on  until  the  time  of  William  IV., 
when,  in  1834,  all  the  slaves  in  the  British  domin¬ 
ions  were  set  free. 

This  reign  only  lasted  seven  years,  and  there 
were  no  wars  in  it ;  so  the  only  other  tiring  that  I 
have  to  tell  you  about  it  is,  that  people  had  gone 


William  IV. 


379 


on  from  finding  that  steam  could  be  made  to  work 
their  ships  to  making  it  draw  carriages.  Railways 
were  being  made  for  trains  of  carriages  and  vans 
to  be  drawn  by  one  steam  engine.  The  oldest  of 
all  was  between  Manchester  and  Liverpool,  and 
was  opened  in  1830,  the  very  year  that  William 
IV.  began  to  reign,  and  that  answered  so  well  that 
more  and  more  began  to  be  made,  and  the  whole 
country  to  be  covered  with  a  network  of  railways, 
so  that  people  and  goods  could  be  carried  about 
much  quicker  than  ever  was  dreamt  of  in  old 
times ;  while  steam-ships  were  made  larger  and 
larger,  and  to  go  greater  distances. 

Besides  this,  many  people  in  England  found 
there  was  not  work  or  food  enough  for  them  at 
home,  and  went  to  settle  in  Canada,  and  Australia, 
and  Van  Dieman’s  Land,  and  New  Zealand,  mak¬ 
ing,  in  all  these  distant  places,  the  new  English 
homes  called  colonies;  and  thus  there  have  come  to 
be  English  people  wherever  the  sun  shines. 

William  IV.  died  in  the  year  1837.  He  was  the 
last  English  king  who  had  the  German  State  of 
Hanover.  It  cannot  belong  to  a  woman,  so  it 
went  to  his  brother  Ernest,  instead  of  his  niece 
Victoria. 


Victoria. 


CHAPTER  XL  VIII. 


VICTORIA. 


A.D.  183T — 1S5.J. 


THE  Princess  Victoria,  daughter  .of  the  Duke 
of  Kent,  was  hut  eighteen  years  old  when 
she  was  waked  early  one  morning  to  hear  that  she 
was  Queen  of  England. 

She  went  with  her  mother,  the  Duchess  of  Kent, 
to  live,  sometimes  at  Buckingham  Palace  and 
sometimes  at  Windsor  Castle,  and  the  next  year 

she  was  crowned  in  state  at  Westminster  Abbey. 

380 


Victoria. 


381 


Everyone  saw  then  how  kind  she  was,  for  when 
one  of  the  lords,  who  was  very  old,  stumbled  on 
the  steps  as  he  came  to  pay  her  homage,  she  sprang 
up  from  her  throne  to  help  him. 

Three  years  later  she  was  married  to  Prince 
Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg,  a  most  excellent  man,  Avho 
made  it  his  whole  business  to  help  her  in  all  her 
duties  as  sovereign  of  this  great  country,  without 
putting  himself  forward.  Nothing  ever  has  been 
more  beautiful  than  the  way  those  two  behaved  to 
one  another  ;  she  never  forgetting  that  he  Avas  her 
husband  and  she  only  his  Avife,  and  he  always 
remembering  that  she  Avas  really  the  queen,  and 
that  he  had  no  power  at  all.  He  had  a  clear  head 
and  good  judgment  that  everyone  trusted  to,  and 
yet  he  always  kept  himself  in  the  background,  that 
the  queen  might  have  all  the  credit  of  Avliatever 
Avas  done. 

He  took  much  pains  to  get  all  that  was  good  and 
beautiful  encouraged,  and  to  turn  people’s  minds  to 
doing  things  not  only  in  the  quickest  and  cheapest, 
but  in  the  best  and  most  beautiful  way  possible. 
One  of  these  plans  that  he  carried  out  Avas  to  set 
up  what  he  called  an  International  Exhibition, 
namely  —  a  great  building,  to  which  every  country 
was  united  to  send  specimens  of  all  its  arts  and 


382  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

manufactures.  It  was  called  the  World’s  Fair. 
The  house  was  of  glass,  and  was  a  beautiful  tiling 
in  itself.  It  was  opened  on  the  1st  of  May,  1851 ; 
and,  though  there  have  been  many  great  Interna¬ 
tional  Exhibitions  since,  not  one  has  come  up  to  the 
first. 

People  talked  as  if  the  World’s  Fair  was  to 
make  all  nations  friends ;  but  it  is  not  showing  off 
their  laces  and  their  silks,  their  ironwork  and  brass, 
their  pictures  and  statues,  that  can  keep  them  at 
peace ;  and,  only  two  years  after  the  Great  Exhibi¬ 
tion,  a  great  war  broke  out  in  Europe  —  only  a 
year  after  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington  had  died, 
full  of  years  and  honors. 

The  only  country  in  Europe  that  is  not  Christian 
is  Turkey;  and  the  Russians  have  always  greatly 
wished  to  conquer  Turkey,  and  join  it  on  to  their 
great  empire.  The  Turks  have  been  getting  less 
powerful  for  a  long  time  past,  and  finding  it  harder 
to  govern  the  country ;  and  one  day  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  asked  the  English  ambassador,  Sir  Ham¬ 
ilton  Seymour,  if  he  did  not  think  the  Turkish 
power  a  very  sick  man  who  would  soon  be  dead. 
Sir  Hamilton  Seymour  knew  what  this  meant ;  and 
he  knew  the  English  did  not  think  it  right  that  the 
Russians  should  drive  out  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  — 


Victoria. 


383 


even  though  he  is  not  a  Christian ;  so  he  made  the 
emperor  understand  that  if  the  sick  man  did  die,  it 
would  not  be  for  want  of  doctors. 

Neither  the  English  nor  the  French  could  bear 
that  the  Russians  should  get  so  much  power  as 
they  would  have,  if  they  gained  all  the  countries 
down  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  so,  as  soon  as  ever 
the  Russians  began  to  attack  the  Turks,  the  Eng¬ 
lish  and  French  armies  were  sent  to  defend  them ; 
and  they  found  the  best  way  of  doing  this  was  to 
go  and  fight  the  Russians  in  their  own  country, 
namely  —  the  Crimea,  the  peninsula  which  hangs, 
as  it  were,  down  into  the  Black  Sea.  So,  in  the 
autumn  of  the  year  1854,  the  English  and  French 
armies,  under  Lord  Raglan  and  Marshal  St.  Arnaud, 
were  landed  in  the  Crimea,  where  they  gained  a 
great  victory  on  their  first  landing,  called  tho 
battle  of  the  Alma,  and  then  besieged  the  city  of 
Sebastopol.  It  was  a  very  long  siege,  and  in  tho 
course  of  it  the  two  armies  suffered  sadly  from 
cold  and  damp,  and  there  was  much  illness  ;  but  a 
brave  English  lady,  named  Florence  Nightingale, 
went  out  with  a  number  of  nurses  to  take  care  of 
the  sick  and  wounded,  and  thus  she  saved  a  great 
many  lives.  There  were  two  more  famous  battles. 
One  was  when  six  hundred  English  horsemen  were 


384  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

sent  by  mistake  against  a  whole  battery  of  Russian 
cannon,  ancl  rode  on  as  bravely  as  if  they  were  not 
seeing  their  comrades  shot  down,  till  scarcely  half 
were  left.  This  was  called  the  Charge  of  Bala- 
klava.  The  other  battle  was  when  the  Russians 
crept  out,  late  in  the  evening  of  November  5,  to 
attack  the  English  camp  ;  and  there  was  a  dreadful 
fight  by  night  and  in  the  early  morning,  on  the 
heights  of  Inkerman  ;  hut  at  last  the  English  won 
the  battle,  and  gave  the  day  a  better  honor  than  it 
had  had  before.  Then  came  a  terrible  winter  of 
watching  the  city  and  filing  at  the  walls;  and 
when  at  last,  on  the  18th  of  June,  1855,  it  was 
assaulted,  the  defenders  heat  the  attack  off;  and 
Lord  Raglan,  worn  out  with  care  and  vexation, 
died  a  few  days  after.  However,  soon  another 
attack  was  made,  and  in  September  half  the  city 
was  won.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  had  died  dur¬ 
ing  the  war,  and  his  son  made  peace,  on  condition 
that  Sebastopol  should  not  he  fortified  again,  and 
that  the  Russians  should  let  the  Turks  alone,  and 
keep  no  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea. 

In  this  war  news  flew  faster  than  ever  it  had 
done  before.  You  heard  how  Benjamin  Franklin 
found  that  electricity  —  that  strange  power  of 
which  lightning  is  the  visible  sign  —  could  be 


Victoria. 


385 


carried  along  upon  melal  wire.  It  has  since  been 
made  out  how  to  make  the  touch  of  a  magnet  at 
one  end  of  these  wires  make  the  other  end  move 
so  that  letters  can  be  pointed  to,  words  spelt  out 
and  messages  sent  to  any  distance  with  really  the 
speed  of  lightning.  This  is  the  wonderful  electric 
telegraph,  of  which  you  see  the  wires  upon  the 
railway. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

VICTORIA. 

a.d.  1857—1860. 

PEACE  had  been  made  after  the  Crimean  war, 
and  everybody  hoped  it  was  going  to  last,  when 
very  sad  news  came  from  India.  You  know  I  told 
you  that  English  people  had  gone  to  live  in  India, 
and  had  gradually  gained  more  and  more  lands 
there,  so  that  they  were  making  themselves  rulers 
and  governors  over  all  that  great  country.  They 
had  some  of  the  regiments  of  the  English  army  to 
help  them  to  keep  up  their  power,  and  a  great 
many  soldiers  besides  —  Hindoos,  or  natives  of 
India,  who  had  English  officers,  and  were  taught 
to  fight  in  the  English  manner.  These  Hindoo 
soldiers  were  called  Sepo37s.  They  were  not  Chris- 
ians,  hut  were  some  of  them  Mahommedans,  and 
some  believed  in  the  strange  religion  of  India, 

386 


Victoria. 


387 


which  teaches  people  to  believe  in  a  great  many 
gods  —  some  of  them  very  savage  and  cruel  ones, 
according  to  their  stories,  and  which  forbids  them 
many  very  simple  things.  One  of  the  things  it  for¬ 
bids  is  the  killing  a  cow,  or  touching  beef,  or  any 
part  of  it. 

Now,  it  seem  the  Sepoys  had  grown  discontented 
with  the  English ;  and,  besides  that,  there  came 
out  a  new  sort  of  cartridge  —  that  is,  little  parcels 
of  powder  and  shot  with  which  to  load  fire-arms. 
The  Sepoys  took  it  into  their  heads  that  these  car¬ 
tridges  had  grease  in  them  taken  from  cows,  and 
that  it  was  a  trick  on  the  part  of  the  English  to 
make  them  brake  the  rules  of  their  religion,  and 
force  them  to  become  Christians.  In  their  anger 
they  made  a  conspiracy  together ;  and,  in  many  of 
the  places  in  India,  they  then  suddenly  turned 
upon  their  English  officers,  and  shot  them  down  on 
their  parade  ground,  and  then  they  went  to  the 
houses  and  killed  every  white  woman  and  child 
they  could  meet  with.  Some  few  had  very  won¬ 
derful  escapes,  and  were  kindly  protected  by 
native  friends ;  and  many  showed  great  bravery 
and  piety  in  their  troubles.  After  that  the  Sepoys 
marched  away  to  the  city  of  Delhi,  where  an  old 
man  lived  who  had  once  been  king,  and  they  set 


388  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

him  up  to  be  king,  while  every  English  person  left 
in  the  city  was  murdered. 

The  English  regiments  in  India  made  haste  to 
come  into  Bengal,  to  try  to  save  their  country¬ 
folk  who  had  shut  themselves  up  in  the  towns  or 
strong  places,  and  were  being  besieged  there  by 
the  Sepoys.  A  great  many  were  in  barracks  in 
Cawnpore.  It  was  not  a  strong  place,  and  only 
had  a  mud  wall  round ;  but  there  was  a  native 
prince  called  the  Nana  Sahib,  who  had  always 
seemed  a  friend  to  the  officers  —  had  gone  out 
hunting  with  them,  and  invited  them  to  his  house. 
They  thought  themselves  safe  near  him ;  but,  to 
their  horror,  he  forgot  all  this,  and  joined  the 
Sepoys.  The  cannon  were  turned  against  them, 
and  the  Sepoys  watched  all  day  the  barrack  yard 
where  they  were  shut  in,  and  shot  everjmne  who 
went  for  water.  At  last,  after  more  pain  and 
misery  that  we  can  bear  to  think  of,  they  gave 
themselves  up  to  the  Nana,  and,  horrible  to  tell,  he 
killed  them  all.  The  men  were  shot  the  first  day, 
and  the  women  and  little  children  were  then  shut 
up  in  a  house,  where  they  were  kept  for  a  night. 
Then  the  Nana  heard  that  the  English  army  was 
coming,  and  in  his  fright  and  rage  he  sent  in  his 
men,  who  killed  everyone  of  then,  and  threw  their 


WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


Victoria. 


391 


bodies  into  a  deep  well.  The  English  came  up  the 
next  day,  and  were  nearly  mad  with  grief  and 
anger.  They  could  not  lay  hands  on  the  Nana, 
but  they  punished  all  the  people  he  had  employed ; 
and  they  were  so  furious  that  they  hardly  showed 
mercy  to  another  Sepoy  after  that  dreadful  sight. 

There  were  some  more  English  holding  out  in 
the  city  of  Lucknow,  and  they  longed  to  go  to  their 
relief ;  but  first  Delhi,  where  the  old  king  was,  had 
to  be  taken;  and,  as  it  was  a  very  strong  place,  it 
was  a  long  time  before  it  was  conquered ;  but  at 
last  the  gates  of  the  city  were  blown  up  by  three 
brave  men,  and  the  whole  army  made  their  way  in. 
More  troops  had  been  sent  out  from  England  to 
help  their  comrades,  and  they  were  able  at  last  to 
march  to  Lucknow.  There,  week  after  week,  the 
English  soldiers,  men  of  business,  ladies,  soldiers’ 
wives,  and  little  children,  had  bravely  waited,  with 
the  enemy  round,  and  shot  so  often  coming  through 
the  buildings  that  they  had  chiefly  to  live  in  the 
cellars ;  and  the  food  was  so  scanty  and  bad,  that 
the  sickly  people  and  the  little  babies  mostly  died ; 
and  no  one  seemed  able  to  get  well  if  once  he  was 
wounded.  Help  came  at  last.  The  brave  Sir 
Colin  Campbell,  who  had  been  sent  out  from  home, 
brought  the  army  to  their  rescue,  and  they  were 


392  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 

saved.  The  Sepoys  were  beaten  in  every  fight; 
and  at  last  the  terrible  time  of  the  mutiny  was 
over,  and  India  quiet  again. 

In  1860,  the  queen  and  all  the  nation  had  a 
grievous  loss  in  the  death  of  the  good  Prince 
Consort,  Albert,  who  died  of  a  fever  at  Windsor 
Castle,  and  was  mourned  for  by  everyone,  as  if  he 
had  been  a  relation  or  friend.  He  left  nine 
children,  of  whom  the  eldest,  Victoria,  the  Princess 
Royal,  was  married  to  the  Prince  of  Prussia.  He 
had  done  everything  to  help  forward  improve¬ 
ments  ;  and  the  country  only  found  out  how  wise 
and  good  he  was  after  he  was  taken  away. 

Pains  began  to  be  taken  to  make  the  great  towns 
healthier.  It  is  true  that  the  plague  has  never 
come  to  England  since  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  but 
those  sad  diseases,  cholera  and  typhus  fever,  come 
where  people  will  not  attend  to  cleanliness.  The 
first  time  the  cholera  came  was  in  the  year  1833, 
under  William  IV. ;  and  that  was  the  last  time  of 
all,  because  it  was  a  new  disease,  and  the  doctors 
did  not  know  what  to  do  to  cure  it.  But  now  they 
understand  it  much  better  —  both  how  to  treat  it, 
and,  what  is  better,  bow  to  keep  it  away ;  and  that 
is  by  keeping  everything  sweet  and  clean. 


C  II A  P  T  E  II  L . 

VICTORIA. 

A.  u.  1800—1872. 

/^\NE  more  chapter,  which,  however,  does  not 
finish  the  history  of  good  Queen  Victoria, 
and  these  Stories  of  the  History  of  England  will  be 
over. 

All  the  nation  rejoiced  very  much  when  the 

queen’s  eldest  son,  Albert  Edward,  the  Prince  of 

393 


394  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

Wales,  married  Alexandra,  daughter  to  the  king  of 
Denmark.  Iler  father  and  mother  brought  her  to 
England,  and  the  prince  met  her  on  board  ship  in 
llie  mouth  of  the  Thames ;  and  there  was  a  most 
beautiful  and  joyous  procession  through  London. 
When  they  were  married  the  next  day,  in  St. 
George’s  Chapel  at  Windsor,  the  whole  of  England 
made  merry,  and  there  were  bonfires  on  every  hill, 
and  illuminations  in  every  town,  so  that  the  whole 
island  was  glowing  with  brightness  all  that  Spring 
evening. 

There  is  a  country  in  Abyssinia,  south  of  Egypt. 
The  people  there  are  Christians,  but  they  have  had 
very  little  to  do  with  other  nations,  and  have 
grown  very  dull  and  half  savage ;  indeed  they  have 
many  horrid  and  disgusting  customs,  and  have  for¬ 
gotten  all  the  teaching  that  would  have  made  them 
better.  Of  late  years  there  had  been  some  attempt 
to  wake  them  up  and  teach  them ;  and  they  had  a 
clever  king  named  Theodore,  who  seemed  pleased 
and  willing  to  improve  himself  and  his  nation.  He 
allowed  missionaries  to  come  and  try  to  teach  his 
people  what  Christianity  means  a  little  better  than 
they  knew  before,  and  invited  skilled  workmen  to 
come  and  teach  his  people.  They  came ;  but  not 
long  after  Theodore  was  affronted  by  the  English 


Victoria. 


395 


Government,  and  shut  them  all  up  in  prison. 
Messages  were  sent  to  insist  upon  his  releasing 
them,  but  he  did  not  attend  or  understand ;  and  at 
last  an  army  was  sent  to  land  on  the  coast  from 
the  east,  under  General  Napier,  and  march  to  his 
capital,  which  was  called  Magdala,  and  stood  on  a 
hill. 

General  Napier  managed  so  well  that  there  was 
no  fighting  on  the  road.  He  came  to  the  gates  of 
Magdala,  and  threatened  to  fire  upon  it  if  the 
prisoners  were  not  given  up  to  him.  He  waited 
till  the  time  was  up,  and  then  caused  his  troops  to 
begin  the  attack.  The  Abyssinians  fled  away,  and 
close  by  one  of  the  gates  Theodore  was  found 
lying  dead,  shot  through.  No  one  is  quite  sure 
whether  one  of  his  servants  killed  him  treach¬ 
erously,  or  whether  he  killed  himself  in  his  rage 
and  despair.  England  did  not  try  to  keep  Abys¬ 
sinia  though  it  was  conquered ;  but  it  was  left  to 
the  royal  family  whom  Theodore  had  turned  out, 
and  Theodore’s  little  son,  about  five  years  old,  was 
brought  to  England ;  but,  as  he  could  not  bear  the 
cold  winters,  he  was  sent  to  a  school  in  India. 

This,  which  was  in  the  year  18G8,  was  the  last 
war  the  English  have  had.  There  has  been  fight¬ 
ing  all  round  and  about  in  Europe,  especially  a 


396  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 

great  war  between  France  and  Prussia  in  1870; 
but  the  only  thing  the  English  had  to  do  with  that, 
was  the  sending  out  doctors  and  nurses,  with  all 
the  good  tilings  for  sick  people  that  could  be 
thought  of,  to  take  care  of  all  the  poor  wounded  on 
both  sides,  and  lessen  their  sufferings  as  much 
as  possible.  They  all  wore  red  crosses  on  their 
sleeves,  and  put  up  a  red-cross  flag  over  the  houses 
where  they  were  taking  care  of  the  sick  and 
wounded,  and  then  no  one  on  either  side  fired 
upon  them. 

An  Act  of  Parliament  has  given  the  right  to 
vote,  at  the  election  of  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  to  much  poorer  men  than  used  to  have 
it.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  learn  to  use 
wisely  this  power  of  helping  to  choose  those  who 
make  the  laws  and  govern  the  country.  To  give 
them  a  better  chance  of  doing  so,  a  law  has  been 
made  that  no  child  shall  be  allowed  to  grow  up 
without  any  teaching  at  all,  but  that  those  who  arc 
too  poor  to  pay  for  their  own  schooling  shall  be 
paid  for  by  the  State,  and  that  their  parents  shall 
be  obliged  to  send  them.  The  great  thing  is  to 
learn  to  know  and  do  one’s  duty.  If  one  only 
learns  to  be  clever  with  one’s  head,  without  trying 


Victoria. 


397 


to  be  good  at  the  same  time,  it  is  of  very  little  use. 
But  I  hope  you  will  try  to  mind  your  duty  —  first 
to  God  and  then  to  man  ;  and  if  you  do  that,  God 
will  prosper  you  and  bless  you. 


QUESTIONS  FOR  EXAMINATION. 


Chapter  I. — 1.  What  were  the  people  called  who  used  to 
live  here  ?  2.  Who  were  the  fiercer  natives  who  came  and 
made  war  on  them  ?  3.  What  was  the  General  of  the  Romans 
called?  4.  Where  did  Julius  Caesar  land  ?  5.  In  what  year? 
6.  How  often  did  Julius  Caesar  land  in  Britain?  7.  What 
did  he  make  the  Britons  give  him  ?  S.  How  did  the  old 
Britons  dress  ?  9.  What  did  they  eat  ?  1C.  What  sort  of 
houses  had  they  ?  11.  How  did  they  fight  ? 


Chapter  II. — 1.  When  did  any  more  Romans  come  to 
Britain  ?  2.  Who  was  the-  Emperor  under  whom  it  was  con¬ 
quered  ?  3.  What  brave  British  chief  resisted  Claudius  ?  4. 
How  far  north  did  the  Homans  gain  Britain  ?  5.  What  did 
they  do  to  keep  back  the  north-people  ?  6.  now  may  you 
know  what  towns  were  built  by  Romans  ?  7.  How  long  did 
the  Romans  keep  Britain  ?  8.  What  did  they  teach  the 
Britons?  9.  What  enemies  had  the  Britons  beyond  sea?  10. 
What  were  their  two  names  ?  11.  What  became  of  the 
Romans  ?  12.  Who  was  King  Arthur  ?  13.  Who  gained  pos¬ 
session  of  the  country  ?  14.  What  did  they  call  it  ?  15.  What 
became  of  the  Britons?  16.  What  do  we  call  their  descend¬ 
ants  ? 


398 


Questions  for  Examination. 


399 


Chapteb  III. — 1.  Can  you  tell  me  any  of  the  old  English 
idols  ?  2.  What  days  of  the  week  are  called  after  them  ?  3. 
How  many  kings  were  there  at  once  in  England  ?  4.  What 
cruel  things  did  they  do  ?  5.  Who  saw  some  little  English 
slave  children  ?  G.  What  did  Gregory  say  about  the  little 
Angles  ?  7.  Whom  did  he  send  to  England  ?  8.  Who  received 
Augustine  ?  9.  Where  was  the  first  English  Church  ?  10. 
What  is  the  chief  English  Bishop  called  ?  11.  What  were  the 
men  called  who  lived  apart  from  the  world  ?  12.  What  were 
the  women  called  ?  13.  What  were  their  houses  called  ? 


Chapter  IY. — 1.  Who  were  the  enemies  of  the  old  English  ? 
2.  Where  did  the  Northmen  and  Danes  come  from  ?  3.  What 
mischief  did  they  do  ?  4.  Who  was  the  first  king  of  all  Eng¬ 
land  ?  5.  Who  was  the  greatest  and  best  king  ?  G.  With 

whom  did  Alfred  fight  ?  7.  What  good  did  he  do  his  people  ? 
8.  How  did  he  teach  them  ?  9.  When  did  he  die  ?  10.  What 
was  the  Council  of  the  old  English  called  ? 


Chapter  V. — 1.  What  was  the  name  of  the  king  who 
reigned  peaceably  ?  1.  What  honor  was  done  to  Edgar  the 
Peaceable  ?  3.  What  were  the  Northmen  and  Danes  about  ? 
4.  What  were  their  leaders  called  ?  5.  Wliat  sea-king  settled 
in  France  ?  G.  What  was  the  part  of  France  called  where  Kollo 
settled  ?  7.  What  was  the  name  of  Edgar’s  son?  8.  How  did 
Etlielred  the  Unready  try  to  make  the  Danes  go  away  ?  9.  How 
did  he  treat  those  that  stayed  in  England  ?  10.  How  was  he 
punished?  11.  What  sort  of  king  was  Cnut ?  12.  What  parts 
i  f  England  were  settled  by  the  Danes  ? 


Chapter  YI.  —  1.  What  great  nobleman  managed  English 
affairs  ?  2.  Whom  did  he  make  king  ?  3.  Why  was  Edward 


400  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


called  Confessor  ?  4.  Of  whom  was  tlie  Confessor  most  fond  ? 
5.  Who  were  the  Normans  ?  G.  To  whom  did  Edward  want  to 
leave  England  ?  7.  Whom  did  the  English  wish  to  have  made 
king  ?  8.  What  did  Harold  promise  ?  9.  Did  he  keep  his 

promise?  10  Who  fought  with  him  ?  11.  Where  did  William 
land  ?  12.  Where  was  the  battle  fought  between  William  and 
Harold  ?  13.  What  came  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  ?  14.  In 

what  year  was  it  fought  ?  15.  Tell  me  the  four  conquests  of 
England. 


Chapter  YII.  — 1.  When  did  William  I.  begin  to  reign?  2. 
Who  rose  up  against  him  ?  3.  What  did  he  do  to  Northumber¬ 
land  ?  4.  What  did  he  do  in  Hampshire  ?  5.  What  is  his 

hunting-ground  called  ?  6.  What  is  the  curfew  ?  7.  What  is 
Doomsday-book  ?  8.  What  were  knights  ?  9.  How  were  men 
dressed  when  the}'  went  to  battle  ?  10.  How  many  sons  had 
William  ?  11.  What  were  their  names  ?  12.  What  was  the 
quarrel  with  Robert?  13.  What  was  the  cause  of  William’s 
death  ?  14.  Where  did  he  die  ?  15.  In  what  year  did  he  die  ? 
1G.  What  possessions  had  he  besides  England  ? 


Chapter  YIII.  —  1.  When  did  William  II.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  What  was  his  nickname,  and  what  did  it  mean  ?  3.  Was  he 
the  eldest  son  ?  4.  So  how  came  he  to  reign  ?  5.  What  did 
Robert  have  ?  6.  What  enterprise  did  Robert  undertake  ?  7. 
What  were  the  Crusades  ?  S.  What  city  did  the  Crusaders  want 
to  win  back  ?  9.  Why  were  they  called  Crusaders  ?  10.  Who 
preached  the  first  Crusade  ?  12.  What  sort  of  king  was  William 
Rufus  ?  13.  Who  was  the  Archbishop  in  his  time  ?  14.  Where 
was  Williafii  Rufus  killed  ?  15.  How  had  the  New  Forest  been 
made?  16.  Who  was  thought  to  have  shot  the  arrow  ?  17.  In 
what  year  did  William  II.  die  ? 


Questions  for  Examination. 


401 


Chapter  IX. — 1.  In  wliat  year  did  Henry  I.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  What  was  his  nickname,  and  what  did  it  mean  ?  3.  Whose 
son  was  he?  4.  How  did  he  make  himself  king?  5.  Whom 
did  he  marry  ?  0.  Whom  did  he  make  prisoner  ?  7.  Where 
was  Eobert  imprisoned  ?  8.  How  long  was  Eobert  in  captivity  ? 
9.  Who  were  Henry’s  two  children  ?  10.  What  became  of  Wil¬ 
liam  ?  11.  What  was  the  name  of  the  ship  in  which  he  was 
drowned  ?  12.  Whom  did  Henry  wish  to  make  queen  ?  13. 

Whom  did  Maude  marry?  14.  What  sort  of  king  was  Henry  ? 
15.  What  caused  his  death  ?  10.  In  what  year  did  Henry  I.  die  ? 


Chapter  X.  —  1.  When  did  Stephen’s  reign  begin?  2. 
Who  was  Stephen  ?  3.  What  relation  was  he  to  William  the 
Conqueror  ?  4.  Ought  Stephen  to  have  been  king  ?  5.  Who 
ought  to  have  reigned  ?  6.  What  harm  came  of  Stephen’s 
reign  ?  7.  What  happened  when  he  tried  to  keep  order  ?  8. 
Who  fought  for  Maude  ?  9.  Where  were  the  Scots  beaten  ? 
10.  Where  was  Stephen  made  prisoner  ?  11.  How  did  Maude 
behave  ?  12.  How  did  she  escape  from  Oxford  ?  13.  What 
agreement  was  made  between  Stephen  and  Maude’s  son  ?  14. 

What  name  was  given  to  Maude’s  husband  ?  15.  Who  was 
Maude’s  son  ?  10.  When  did  Stephen  die  ?  17.  What  became 
of  Maude  ? 

Chatter  XI. — 1.  When  did  Henry  II.  begin  to  reign  ?  2. 
What  family  began  with  him  ?  3.  Why  were  they  called  Plan- 
tagenet?  4.  What  sort  of  man  was  Henry  II.?  5.  Who  was 
his  wife  ?  6.  What  were  Henry’s  possessions  in  France  ?  7. 
Who  was  Archbishop  ?  8.  What  law  did  the  King  and  Arch¬ 
bishop  dispute  about  ?  9.  Where  was  the  Archbishop  obliged 
to  go  ?  10.  How  long  did  Beclcet  stay  away  ?  11.  What  was 
done  as  soon  as  he  came  home  ?  12.  How  did  the  King  show 
his  sorrow?  13.  What  island  was  gained  in  Henry’s  time? 


402  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


14.  Who  gained  part  of  Ireland  ?  15.  What  were  Henry’s 

troubles  ?  10.  What  were  the  names  of  his  sons  ?  17.  Which 
of  his  sons  died  before  him  ?  18.  But  what  was  his  greatest 
grief  ?  19.  When  did  he  die  ? 


Chapter  XII — 1.  When  did  Richard  I.  come  to  the  throne? 
2.  What  was  he  called  ?  3.  On  what  expedition  did  he  go  ? 
4.  Who  went  with  him  ?  5.  What  Island  did  he  conquer  on 
his  way  ?  6.  Who  was  the  great  Prince  of  the  Saracens  ?  7. 
What  city  was  taken  by  the  Crusaders  ?  8.  With  whom  did 
Richard  quarrel  ?  9.  Why  did  Philip  return  ?  10.  What  great 
battle  did  Richard  fight  ?  11.  What  fresh  quarrel  had  he  with 
Leopold  ?  12.  Why  was  he  obliged  to  come  home  ?  13.  What 
happened  to  him  as  he  came  home  ?  14.  How  was  he  set  free  ? 
15.  Who  had  tried  to  rebel  in  his  absence  ?  10.  What  caused 
his  death  ?  17.  In  what  year  did  he  die  ? 


Chapter  XIII. — 1.  When  did  John  come  to  the  throne  ? 
2.  What  was  his  nickname  ?  3.  Whose  son  was  he  ?  4.  Who 
was  his  nephew ?  5.  What  possessions  were  Arthur’s  proper 
inheritance?  G.  Who  took  his  part  ?  7.  What  became  of  Ar¬ 
thur  ?  8.  What  did  John  lose  ?  9.  What  is  left  to  England 
of  Normandy  ?  10.  What  do  you  mean  by  the  Pope  ?  11. 

What  quarrel  had  John  with  the  Pope  ?  12.  What  is  an  inter¬ 
dict  ?  13.  How  did  John  make  peace  ?  14.  How  did  the  legate 
treat  him  ?  15.  How  did  John  use  the  kingdom?  1G.  What 
was  he  made  to  sign  ?  17.  Where  was  Magna  Charta  signed? 
18.  Who  was  invited  from  France  ?  19.  What  caused  John’s 
death  ?  20.  In  what  year  ? 


Chapter  XIY. — 1.  When  did  Henry  III.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  In  what  state  was  the  kingdom  ?  3.  Who  saved  it  ?  4.  What 


Questions  for  Examination. 


403 


was  Henry’s'  great  fault?  5.  What  beautiful  church  was 
built  in  bis  time  ?  6.  Why  were  his  people  discontented  with 
him  ?  7.  What  is  the  great  council  of  the  nation  called  ?  8. 
Who  led  the  opposition  against  nenry  ?  9.  In  what  battle  was 
Montfort  victorious  ?  10.  In  what  battle  was  be  defeated.  11. 
What  custom  was  established  in  Henry’s  time?  12.  What  are 
the  three  estates  of  the  realm  ?  13.  How  long  did  Henry  III. 
reign  ?  14.  When  did  he  die  ? 


Chapter  XY. — 1.  When  did  Edward  I.  begin  to  reign  ?  2. 
What  was  his  nickname  ?  8.  How  did  he  rule  England  ?  4. 
What  country  did  he  conquer  ?  5.  Who  were  the  Welsh  ?  6. 

Whom  did  he  make  Prince  of  Wales  ?  7.  Who  is  always  called 
Prince  of  Wales  ?  8.  What  country  did  Edward  try  to  gain  ? 
9.  What  warrior  defended  Scotland?  10.  Where  was  Wallace 
defeated  ?  11.  Who  made  himself  King  of  Scotland  ?  12. 

Where  did  Edward  I.  die  ?  13.  In  what  year? 


Chapter  XVI. — 1.  When  did  Edward  II.  come  to  the  throne? 
2.  Who  was  his  first  favorite  ?  3.  Who  was  his  wife  ?  4.  How 
did  Oaveston  affront  the  nobles  ?  5.  What  became  of  him  ? 
G.  What  battle  did  Edward  fight  with  the  Scots  ?  7.  Who  was 
Edward’s  second  favorite?  8.  Who  rose  against  the  King? 
9.  Who  was  made  king  in  his  stead  ?  10.  What  became  of 
nugh  le  Despenser  ?  11.  What  became  of  Edward  II.  ?  12. 
Where  was  he  murdered  ?  13.  In  what  year  ? 


Chapter  XYII. — 1.  When  did  Edward  III.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  Who  was  his  Queen  ?  3.  What  was  the  great  war  in  Ed¬ 
ward’s  time  ?  4.  What  was  the  cause  of  it  ?  5.  Why  did  Ed¬ 
ward  think  he  had  a  right  to  be  King  of  France  ?  6.  What 
were  the  four  great  battles  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  ? 


404  Young  Folks’  History  of  England. 


1.  Which  of  these  was  by  sea  ?  8.  Which  was  with  the  Scots  ? 

9.  Which  was  fought  by  the  Black  Prince  ?  10.  Who  was  the 
Black  Prince  ?  11.  What  town  was  taken  after  the  battle  of 
Crecy.  12.  What  kings  were  prisoners  to  Edward  III.  ?  13. 
What  expedition  did  the  Black  rrince  make  ?  14.  Who  wrere 
the  sons  of  Edward  III.  ?  15.  Which  of  them  died  before  him  ? 

10.  In  what  year  did  Edward  III.  die  ? 


Chapter  XYIII. —  1.  When  did  Richard  II.  come  to  the 
throne  ?  IIow  old  was  he  ?  3.  Who  governed  for  him  ?  4. 
Who  rose  up  against  their  lords?  5.  What  became  of  Wat 
Tyler?  G.  Which  uncle  was  Richard’s  enemy  ?  7.  How  was 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester  removed  ?  S.  What  great  quarrel  broke 
out?  9.  What  was  the  King’s  sentence  ?  10.  Who  returned  ? 

11.  What  befel  Richard  II.  ?  12.  To  whom  did  he  give  up  his 
crown  ?  13.  Where  was  he  sent  ?  14.  In  what  year  was  he 
deposed  ? 


Chapter  XIX. — 1  When  did  Henry  IY.  come  to  the  crown? 
2.  Whose  son  was  he  ?  3.  What  relation  was  he  to  Edward 

III.  ?  4.  Who  was  Edward  III.’s  second  son  ?  5.  Who,  then, 
was  his  nearest  heir  ?  0.  Who  rose  against  llenry  IY.  ?  7. 
Where  was  Hotspur  killed?  S.  Where  did  the  war  go  on  ? 
9.  Who  were  Henry’s  four  sons  ?  10.  Who  were  the  prisoners 

at  Windsor  ?  11.  What  did  Henry  TV.  tell  his  son  on  his 
deathbed  ?  12.  In  what  year  did  Henry  IY.  die  ?  13.  What 
is  his  family  called  ? 


Chapter  XX. — 1.  When  did  Henry  Y.  come  to  the  throne  ? 
2.  What  war  did  he  undertake  ?  3.  Who  had  begun  the  war 
with  France  ?  4.  Why  did  the  Kings  of  England  think  they 
ought  to  be  Kings  of  France  ?  5.  What  was  the  state  of  the 


Questions  for  Examination. 


405 


kingdom  of  France  ?  0.  What  town  did  Henry  take  ?  7.  What 
battle  did  lie  fight  ?  8.  What  is  the  eldest  son  of  the  King  of 
France  called  ?  9.  What  made  the  French  more  easily  beaten  ? 
10.  Whom  did  Henry  marry  ?  11.  What  agreement  was  made  ? 
12.  Where  did  Henry  die  ?  18.  In  what  year  ? 


Chapter  XXI.  —  1.  When  did  Henry  VI.  come  to  the 
throne  ?  2.  How  old  was  he  ?  3.  Of  what  kingdom  was  he 
called  king  ?  4.  Who  governed  his  part  of  France  ?  5.  Who 
rose  up  to  help  the  French  ?  6.  Why  was  she  called  the  Maid  of 
Orleans?  7.  What  became  of  her?  S.  Who  were  quarreling 
at  home  ?  9.  Who  were  the  Beauforts  ?  10.  Who  was  John 

of  Gaunt  ?  11.  Whom  did  Henry  VI.  marry  ?  12.  What  be¬ 
came  of  Duke  Humfrey  ?  13.  What  city  was  left  to  England 
in  France  ?  14.  What  terrible  war  broke  out  in  England  ?  15. 
Why  was  it  called  the  War  of  the  Roses  ?  1G.  Why  did  the 
Duke  of  York  think  he  ought  to  be  king?  17.  From  which 
son  of  Edward  III.  did  his  right  come?  18.  From  which  son 
did  Henry’s  ?  19.  In  what  battle  was  the  Duke  of  York  killed  ? 
20.  Who  took  the  command  of  the  Yorkists  ?  21.  What  bat¬ 
tles  were  fought  in  the  north  ?  22.  What  became  of  the 

king  ?  23.  When  did  Henry  VI.  cease  to  reign  ? 


Chapter  XXII. — 1.  When  did  Edward  IV.  become  king  ? 
2.  What  was  the  War  of  the  Iloses?  3.  What  was  Earl  War¬ 
wick  called?  4.  How  did  Edward  affront  Warwick?  5. 
Whom  did  Warwick  bring  back  ?  6.  What  became  of  Edward  ? 
7.  What  battles  did  he  win  ?  8.  What  cruel  murders  were 
done  on  the  House  of  Lancaster?  9.  Who  were  Edward’s 
brothers  ?  10.  What  happened  to  George  ?  11.  What  inven¬ 
tion  was  brought  into  England  ?  12.  How  were  people  begin¬ 
ning  to  fight  ?  13.  When  did  Ed  ward  IV.  die  ? 


406  Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


Chapter  XXIII. — 1.  What  was  the  year  of  Edward  Y.’s 
reigu  ?  2.  Who  was  his  brother  ?  3.  Who  were  his  uncles  on 
his  mother’s  side  ?  4.  Who  was  his  uncle  on  his  father’s  side  ? 
5.  What  great  quarrel  was  there  ?  6.  Which  got  the  keeping 
of  the  king  ?  7.  How  did  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  get  rid  of  the 
king’s  friends?  S.  Where  did  the  Queen  go?  9.  How  was 
she  made  to  give  up  the  Duke  of  York  ?  10.  Who  made  him¬ 
self  king?  Where  were  Edward  and  Richard  shut  up  ?  12. 
What  is  thought  to  have  become  of  them  ? 


Chapter  XXIY.  —  1. — When  did  Richard  III.  begin  to 
reign  ?  2.  Why  could  he  not  be  a  great  king  ?  3.  Who  turned 
against  him  ?  4.  What  was  done  to  Buckingham  ?  5.  Who 

also  plotted  against  him  ?  G.  Who  was  the  mother  of  Henry 
Tudor  ?  7.  Who  was  the  father  of  Margaret  Beaufort  ? 

8.  Who  was  the  father  of  the  Beauforts  ?  9.  Who  was  the 
father  of  John  of  Gaunt?  10.  Who  wrote  letters  to  Henry 
Tudor?  11.  Where  did  Henry  Tudor  land?  12.  Where  was 
the  battle  fought  ?  13.  Who  was  killed  there  ?  14.  In  what 
year?  15.  How  long  had  the  Plantagenets  reigned  ?  1G.  Who 
was  the  first  Plantagenet  king  ? 


Chapter  XXY.  —  1.  When  did  Henry  VII.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  Whom  did  he  marry  ?  3.  What  were  thus  ended  ?  4.  What 
family  began  to  reign  ?  5.  Who  were  the  two  pretenders  who 
rose  up  ?  G.  Who  did  Lambert  Simnel  pretend  to  be  ?  7. 
What  became  of  him  ?  S.  Who  did  Perkin  Warbeck  pretend  to 
be  ?  9.  What  became  of  him  ?  10.  Who  was  put  to  death  at 
the  same  time  ?  Whose  son  was  the  Earl  of  Warwick  ?  12. 
What  were  the  names  of  Henry’s  sons  ?  13.  Who  was  to  be 
Arthur’s  wife  ?  14.  Which  son  died  young  ?  15.  Who  were 


Questions  for  Examination. 


407 


Henry  VII.’ s  yvicked  judges  ?  16.  What  learning  was  coming 
in  ?  17.  When  did  Henry  VII.  die  ? 


Chapter  XXVI.  —  1.  When  did  Henry  VIII.  begin  to 
reign  ?  2.  What  battle  did  he  fight  in  Fi  ance  ?  3.  What  bat¬ 
tle  was  fought  with  the  Scots?  4.  Who  was  his  Prime  Min¬ 
ister  ?  5.  What  grand  meeting  had  Henry  with  the  King  of 
France  ?  6.  Who  was  Henry’s  wife  ?  7.  What  objection  had 
there  been  to  his  marrying  her  ?  8.  Who  was  their  only  child  ? 
9.  What  did  Wolsey  want  to  have  done?  10.  Whom  did  the 
king  want  to  marry  ?  11.  Who  was  asked  to  decide  ?  12. 

Why  did  not  the  Pope  make  an  answer  ?  13.  What  proposal  did 
Cranmer  make  ?  14.  What  became  of  Wolsey  ?  15.  What  sad 
words  did  lie  say  ? 


Chapter  XXVII. — 1.  Why  did  Henry  VIII.  quarrel  with 
the  Pope?  2.  What  did  he  call  himself?  3.  Whom  did  he 
put  to  death  for  denying  his  headship  ?  4.  What  changes 
did  he  make  in  the  Church  ?  5.  What  was  done  with  the 
monks  and  nuns  ?  6.  But  what  was  done  with  those  who 
wanted  to  make  changes  ?  7.  How  many  wives  had  Henry  ? 
8.  Who  was  the  king’s  first  wife  ?  9.  What  became  of  Katha¬ 
rine  of  Aragon  ?  10.  Who  was  her  child  ?  11.  Who  was  Hen¬ 
ry’s  second  wife  ?  12.  Who  was  Anne  Boleyn’s  child  ?  13. 
What  became  of  Anne  Boleyn  ?  14.  Who  was  Henry’s  third 
wife?  15.  Who  was  Jane  Seymour’s  child?  16.  What  be¬ 
came  of  Jane  Seymour  ?  17.  Who  was  Henry’s  fourth  wife? 
18.  What  became  of  Anne  of  Cleves  ?  19.  Who  was  Henry’s 
fifth  wife  ?  20.  What  became  of  Katharine  Howard  ?  21.  Who 
was  his  sixth  wife  ?  22.  How  tell  me  the  names  of  the  six 
wives  ?  23.  In  what  year  did  Henry  VIII.  die  ? 


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Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


Chapter  XXYIII. — 1.  When  did  Edward  VI.  come  to  the 
crown  ?  2.  How  old  was  he  ?  3.  Who  ruled  for  him  ?  4. 
What  was  done  to  the  Prayer-Book  ?  5.  WThat  was  the  Refor¬ 
mation  ?  6.  What  name  was  given  to  the  reformers  ?  7.  What 
further  change  was  made  ?  8.  Who  was  Archbishop  of  Can¬ 
terbury  ?  9.  Who  overthrew  the  Duke  of  Somerset  ?  10.  To 

whom  did  the  Duke  of  Northumberland  want  Edward  to  leave 
his  throne?  11.  Whose  grand-daughter  was  Jane  Grey?  12. 
Who  was  his  right  heiress  ?  13.  Why  did  Northumberland  wish 
to  hinder  Mary  from  reigning  ?  14.  How  old  was  Edward 
when  he  died  ?  15.  In  what  year  did  Edward  VI.  die  ? 


Chapter  XXIX. — 1.  When  did  Mary  I.  come  to  the  crown? 
2.  Who  was  at  first  proclaimed  Queen?  3.  Why  was  Mary’s 
a  better  right  than  Jane’s  ?  4.  What  became  of  Jane  ?  5. 
Whom  did  Mary  marry  ?  0.  What  did  they  try  to  restore  ?  7. 
What  was  done  to  those  who  would  not  return  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  doctrine  ?  8.  What  four  bishops  were  burnt  ?  9 
Where  did  Bishop  Hooper  die  ?  10.  Where  did  Bishops  Ridley 
and  Latimer  and  Archbishop  Cranmer  die  ?  11.  How  many 
were  burnt  altogether  ?  12.  Into  what  war  was  Mary  drawn  ? 
13.  What  city  was  lost  ?  14  When  did  Mary  I.  die  ? 


Chapter  XXX. — 1.  When  did  Elizabeth  come  to  the  crown? 
2.  What  did  she  do  for  the  Church  ?  3.  Who  was  the  first 
favorite  ?  4.  Who  was  her  wise  minister  ?  5.  Who  was  the 

heiress  to  the  crown  ?  6.  What  was  Mary  of  Scotland’s  right 
to  England  ?  7.  Of  what  was  Mary  of  Scotland  accused  ?  8. 
Whither  was  she  forced  to  flee  ?  9.  What  was  done  with  her  ? 
10.  now  long  was  she  kept  in  prison  ?  11.  What  was  her  end  ? 
12.  Why  was  she  put  to  death  ?  13.  Where  was  she  put  to  death  ? 


Questions  for  Examination . 


409 


Chapter  XXXI. — 1.  Who  was  Queen  Elizabeth’s  eliief  for¬ 
eign  enemy  ?  2.  What  subjects  of  his  diet  he  persecute  ?  3. 
Whom  did  Elizabeth  send  to  help  them  ?  4.  What  was  Sir 
Philip  Sidney’s  generosity  ?  5.  What  great  fleet  was  sent 

from  Spain  against  Elizabeth  ?  0.  What  became  of  the  Ar¬ 
mada  ?  7.  Who  were  Elizabeth’s  great  sailors  ?  8.  What  set¬ 
tlement  was  made  in  her  time  ?  9.  Who  was  Elizabeth’s  sec¬ 
ond  favorite  ?  10.  What  was  the  end  of  Lord  Essex?  11. 
What  was  the  Queen’s  great  grief  ?  12.  When  did  Elizabeth 
die  ?  13.  What  family  ended  with  her? 


Chapter  XXXII. — 1.  When  did  James  I.  come  to  the 
crown  ?  2.  Who  was  his  mother  ?  3.  From  which  English 
king  was  he  descended  ?  4.  What  kingdom  had  he  already  ? 
5.  So  what  kingdoms  were  joined  together?  6.  What  good 
work  was  done  in  his  time  ?  7.  What  conspiracy  was  made 
against  him  ?  8.  Where  was  the  gunpowder  hidden  ?  9.  IIow 
was  the  plot  found  out  ?  10.  Who  was  going  to  fire  the 

powder?  11.  Who  was  James’s  great  favorite?  12.  What 
became  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  ?  13.  M  hen  did  James  I.  die  ? 
14.  What  family  had  begun  with  him  ? 


Chapter  XXXIII.— 1.  When  did  Charles  I.  come  to  the 
crown?  2.  Who  had  been  made  powerful  by  Magna  Carta  ? 
3.  IIow  did  the  barons  grow  weak  ?  4.  Who  had  the  power 
then  ?  5.  But  who  had  grown  strong  ?  fi.  IIow  ought  money 
for  government  to  be  raised  ?  7.  W  ho  was  the  king’s  friend  ? 
8.  Who  was  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ?  9.  What  rules  did  he 
enforce  ?  10.  Who  were  the  Puritans  ?  11.  Where  did  some  of 
them  go?  12.  How  did  the  king  try  to  raise  money  ?  13.  What 
was  ship  money  ?  14.  What  was  the  Star  Chamber  ?  15. 


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Young  Folks’  History  of  England . 


What  became  of  Buckingham  ?  10.  How  had  Charles  offended 
the  Scots  ?  17.  Why  was  he  obliged  to  call  a  parliament  ? 


Chapter  XXXIY. —  1.  Why  was  the  parliament  angry  with 
Charles  I.  ?  2.  What  friends  of  his  did  they  imprison  ?  8. 
What  noble  did  they  behead  ?  4.  How  did  Charles  try  to 
check  the  Parliament  ?  5.  What  prevented  his  arresting  the 
five  members  ?  6.  What  war  broke  out  ?  7.  What  is  a  civil 
war?  8.  What  were  the  king’s  friends  called ?  9.  What  were 
the  friends  of  the  parliament  called  ?  10.  Who  was  the  king’s 
general  ?  11.  What  general  rose  to  power  among  the  Round¬ 
heads  ?  12.  What  were  the  three  great  battles  ?  13.  Who  was 
put  to  death  by  the  parliament  ?  14.  What  did  the  Puritans 
do  ?  15.  Whose  protection  did  the  king  seek  ?  16.  But  what 
did  the  Scots  do  with  him?  17.  What  is  this  parliament 
called  ? 


Chapter  XXXV. — 1.  Who  was  prisoner  to  the  Long  Parlia¬ 
ment  ?  2.  How  came  Charles  I.  to  be  a  prisoner?  3.  What 
did  the  parliament  ask  of  him  ?  4.  Who  took  him  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  parliament  ?  5.  Who  had  become  the  chief  power? 
0.  How  did  Cromwell  treat  the  Long  Parliament  ?  7.  What 
did  he  then  do  to  the  king  ?  8.  When  was  the  king  beheaded  ? 
9.  Where  was  he  buried  ?  10.  Whom  did  the  Scots  invite  to 
reign  ?  11.  Where  were  they  beaten  ?  12.  Where  was  Charles 
hidden?  13.  Where  did  he  go  and  live?  14.  What  harm 
came  of  their  living  there  ? 


Chapter  XXXVI. — 1.  Who  ruled  in  England  ?  2.  How 
did  he  put  an  end  to  the  Long  Parliament  ?  3.  What  was  Oli¬ 
ver  Cromwell’s  parliament  called  ?  4.  What  was  Oliver  Crorn- 


Questions  for  Examination. 


411 


well  called?  5.  How  long  was  he  Protector?  6.  Who  was 
Protector  after  him  ?  7.  What  did  Richard  Cromwell  do  ?  8. 
Who  was  at  the  head  of  the  army  ?  0.  What  did  General 
Monk  decide  on  doing  ?  10.  On  what  day  did  Charles  II.  re¬ 
turn  ?  11.  What  is  the  return  of  Charles  II.  called  ?  12.  Whom 
•jid  he  bring  back  ?  13.  What  regiment  did  he  retain  ?  14. 
What  was  thus  begun  ? 


Chapter  XXXVII. — 1.  When  did  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
begin  ?  2.  Why  were  the  Puritans  displeased  ?  3.  Why  were 
the  Cavaliers  displeased?  4.  What  name  came  to  ho  given  to 
the  Puritans  ?  5.  What  name  was  given  to  the  Cavaliers  ? 
6.  What  war  took  place  in  Charles  II.’s  time  ?  7.  What  great 
disasters  hefel  London  ?  8.  What  disturbances  were  there  in 
Scotland  ?  0.  Who  was  the  next  heir  to  the  throne  ?  10.  What 
was  the  false  plot?  11.  What  was  the  true  plot?  12.  Who 
was  to  be  made  king  by  the  Rye  House  plot  ?  13.  Who  were 
concerned  in  it  ?  14.  What  was  the  sentence  on  Lord  Russell  ? 
15.  When  did  Charles  II.  die  ? 


Chapter  XXXVIII.— 1.  When  did  James  II.  come  to  the 
crown?  2.  To  what  church  did  he  belong?  3.  Who  tried 
to  become  king  in  his  stead  ?  4.  Where  was  Monmouth  de¬ 
feated  ?  5.  What  was  his  punishment  ?  6.  How  was  the  revolt 
punished  ?  7.  Why  did  the  people  dislike  James  ?  8.  What 
command  did  he  give  the  clergy  ?  9.  How  many  bishops  re¬ 
fused  ?  10.  What  was  done  to  them  ?  11.  Why  were  the  peo¬ 
ple  vexed  when  the  king’s  son  was  born  ?  12.  What  story  did 
they  tell  ?  13.  Who  came  over  to  England  ?  14.  Where  did 
William  of  Orange  land  ?  15.  What  did  King  James  do  ?  10. 
Where  did  he  live  ?  17.  In  what  year  did  he  flee  away?  18. 


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Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


What  is  this  called  ?  19.  Tell  me  the  difference  between  the 
Reformation,  the  Rebellion,  the  Restoration,  and  the  Revolu¬ 
tion  ? 


CnAPTEii  XXXIX. — 1.  When  was  William  III.  made  king  ? 
2.  Who  was  his  wife  ?  3.  Who  was  his  mother  ?  4.  So  who 
were  king  and  queen  together  ?  5.  Who  were  now  the  strongest 
power  ?  6.  Who  are  the  Commons  ?  7.  How  often  must  they 
be  chosen  ?  S.  Who  are  the  House  of  Lords  ?  9.  Who  begin 
considering  of  a  law  ?  10.  Who  pass  the  law  afterwards  ?  11. 
Who  consents  to  it  afterwards  ?  12.  What  is  the  Council 

called  ?  13.  Who  were  the  Jacobites  ?  14.  Who  were  the 

Non-Jurors  ?  15.  Who  fought  for  James  in  Scotland  ?  16. 
Where  was  there  a  sea-fight  in  his  cause  ?  17.  To  what  place 
did  he  come  himself  ?  18.  Where  were  the  gates  shut  against 
him  ?  19.  In  what  battle  was  he  defeated  ?  20.  What  was  the 
Act  of  Settlement  ?  21.  What  great  war  began  at  the  end  of 
his  reign  ?  22.  What  caused  his  death  ?  23.  In  what  year  ? 


Ciiapter  XL. — 1.  When  did  Queen  Anne  begin  to  reign? 
2.  Whose  daughter  was  she  ?  3.  Who  were  her  favorites  ?  4. 
What  battles  did  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  gain  ?  5.  What 
was  the  cause  of  the  war  ?  6.  What  place  in  Spain  was  gained 
by  England  ?  7.  Who  overthrew  Marlborough  ?  8.  What  min¬ 
istry  came  in  ?  9.  What  union  took  place  in  Anne’s  time  ? 
10.  In  what  year  did  Anne  die? 


Chapter  XLI. — 1.  In  what  year  did  George  I.  begin  to 
reign?  2.  Whose  son  was  he?  3.  Whose  daughter  was  the 
Electress  Sophia?  4.  Whose  daughter  was  Elizabeth  Stuart 
5.  How  came  George  I.  to  be  made  King  of  England  ?  6.  Who 


Questions  for  Examination. 


413 


did  the  Jacobites  think  ought  to  reign  ?  7.  Why  was  not  James 
Stuart  allowed  foreign?  S.  What  did  the  Whigs  call  him  ? 
9.  What  did  the  Tories  call  him?  10.  Where  was  there  a  ris¬ 
ing  for  him  ?  11.  In  what  year?  12.  What  two  battles  were 
fought  for  him  ?  13.  What  noblemen  were  beheaded  ?  14. 

Where  did  George  I.  generally  live  ?  15.  In  what  year  did  he 
die  ? 


Chapter  XLII. — 1.  When  did  George  II.  come  to  the  throne? 
2.  What  great  war  was  going  on  ?  3.  What  was  the  last  battle 
where  the  kings  of  England  and  France  were  present  ?  4.  Who 
came  to  try  to  regain  the  crown  of  England  ?  5.  What  is  the 
war  with  Charles  Edward  called  ?  G.  Who  joined  him  ?  7. 
What  battle  did  he  gain  ?  S.  How  far  south  did  he  march  ? 
9.  Where  was  he  beaten  ?  10.  What  strange  adventures  had 
they?  11.  What  are  colonies?  12.  Where  had  the  English 
colonies?  13.  What  was  the  great  battle  in  Canada  ?  14.  Who 
was  killed  there  ?  15.  What  was  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta? 
16.  Who  were  George  II. ’s  ministers?  17.  When  did  George 
II.  die  ? 


Chapter  XLIII. — 1.  When  did  George  III.  begin  to  reign  ? 
2.  What  relative  was  he  to  George  II.  ?  3.  Who  was  his 

father?  4.  What  colony  .revolted  from  him?  5.  What  made 
the  American  colonies  revolt  ?  6.  What  were  Franklin’s  in¬ 
ventions  ?  7.  What  are  they  now  called  ?  8.  Who  was  the 
great  American  leader  ?  9.  Who  died  when  opposing  their  in¬ 

dependence  ?  10.  Who  allied  himself  with  the  Americans? 
11.  How  many  children  had  George  III.  ? 


Chapter  XLIV. — 1-  Who  were  the  three  eldest  sons  of 
George  III.  ?  2.  Which  of  them  was  a  grief  and  sorrow  to 


414 


Young  Folks'  History  of  England. 


him?  3.  Who  was  liis  great  minister  ?  4.  What  Bill  did  Mr. 
Pitt  want  to  bring  in?  5.  Why  did  George  III.  object?  6. 
What  was  the  effect  on  him  ?  7.  What  horrible  things  hap¬ 
pened  in  Fi  ance  ?  4.  Who  came  to  be  the  great  French  leader? 
9.  Whom  did  he  defeat  in  battle  ?  10.  What  did  he  threaten  to 

do  in  England  ?  11.  Who  was  a  great  commander  by  sea  ?  12. 
What  were  Nelson’s  three  great  victories  ?  13.  Where  was  he 
killed?  14.  What  had  Bonaparte  risen  to  be?  15.  How  did 
the  English  go  on  resisting  him  ?  16.  What  was  the  sadness  of 
the  king’s  old  age  ? 


Chapter  XLY. — 1.  What  was  the  matter  with  George  III.? 
2.  Who  governed  the  kingdom  ?  3.  What  great  war  was  going 
on?  4.  Where  did  the  English  fight?  5.  Who  was  sent  first 
to  Spain  ?  6.  Where  was  Sir  John  Moore  killed  ?  7.  Who 
commanded  afterwards?  8.  Where  did  he  drive  the  French? 
9.  What  was  the  war  called  ?  10.  What  were  his  great  victor¬ 
ies  ?  11.  What  was  done  with  Napoleon?  12.  How  soon  did 

he  escape?  13.  Where  was  he  defeated?  14.  To  whom  did 
he  give  himself  up?  15.  Where  was  he  kept  ?  16.  In  what 
year  did  George  III.  begin  to  reign  ?  17.  In  what  year  did 

lie  die  ? 


Chapter  XLYI. — 1.  When  did  George  IY.  come  to  the 
crown  ?  2.  Whom  had  he  married  ?  3.  flow  had  she  behaved? 
4.  Who  was  their  daughter?  5.  What  did  George  IY.  try  to 
do  ?  What  parts  of  his  dominions  did  he  visit  ?  7.  What  Bill 
was  passed  in  his  time  ?  8.  What  discoveries  were  made  ?  9. 
What  towns  grew  large  and  rich  ?  10.  Who  were  George  IV.’s 
ministers  ?  II.  When  did  George  IV.  die  ? 


Chapter  XLVII. — 1.  When  did  William  IY.  come  to  the 
throne?  2.  Whose  son  was  he?  3.  Which  party  were  his 


Questions  for  Examination. 


415 


friends?  4.  What  Bill  was  passed  in  liis  time  ?  5.  Wliat  riots 
took  place  ?  G.  What  change  did  the  Reform  Bill  make?  7. 
What  cruel  thing  used  to  be  done  in  the  West  India  Islands  ? 
S.  Who  tried  to  put  an  end  to  slavery  ?  9.  When  was  the  slave 
trade  forbidden  ?  10.  When  were  the  slaves  set  free?  11.  When 

did  William  IV.  die  ? 


Chapter  XLVIIT. — 1.  When  did  Queen  Victoria  begin  to 
reign?  2.  Whose  daughter  is  she  ?  3.  Whose  grand-daughter? 

4.  Who  was  her  husband  ?  5.  What  was  the  first,  great  war  in 
her  time  ?  G.  Where  was  it  fought  out  ?  7.  Who  commanded 
the  English  ?  8.  What  town  was  besieged  ?  9.  What  were 
the  three  great  battles  of  the  Crimean  war  ? 


Chapter  XLIX.— 1.  What  terrible  disaster  happened  in 
India?  2.  Who  were  the  Sepoys?  3.  What  made  the  Sepoys 
angry?  4.  What  was  their  mutiny  ?  5.  Where  did  they  make 
the  most  horrible  murders  ?  6.  What  city  held  out  against  the 
Sepoys  ?  7.  What  city  was  besieged  by  the  English  ?  S.  Who 
put  down  the  mutiny  ?  9.  In  what  year  did  the  Prince  Con¬ 
sort  die  ? 


Chapter  L.  —  I.  Who  is  the  Princess  of  Wales?  2.  In 
what  African  country  was  there  a  war  ?  3.  What  was  (lie  name 
of  the  king  ?  4.  What  was  the  name  of  his  capital  ?  5.  Who 
was  the  English  general  ?  G.  What  became  of  Theodore  ?  7. 
What  great  war  was  there  in  1870  ?  8.  What  had  the  English 
to  do  with  that  ? 


